David J. DeWitt joined the Computer Sciences Department at the
University of Wisconsin in September 1976 after receiving his
Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. He served as department
chair from July 1999 to July 2004. He held the title John P. Morgridge
Professor of Computer Sciences when he retired from the University of
Wisconsin and joined Microsoft as a Technical Fellow in 2008.
Professor DeWitt is a member of the National Academy of Engineering
(1998), a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007),
and an ACM Fellow (1995). He received the 1995 SIGMOD Innovations
Award for his contributions to the database systems field.  Professor
DeWitt has authored over 120 technical publications and served on
numerous program committees and NSF Review Panels. He was a member of
the NSF CISE Advisor Committee from 2000-2003, the CSTB from
2005-2007, and has served on several NRC and DARPA study panels. He
was the program chair of the 1983 SIGMOD conference, program co-chair
of the 1988 VLDB conference, and general chair of the 2002 SIGMOD
Conference.