Mihai Pătrașcu (computer scientist)
Mihai Pătrașcu (17 July 1982 – 5 June 2012) was a Romanian-American computer scientist at AT&T Labs in Florham Park, New Jersey, USA.
Mihai Pătrașcu | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 July 1982 |
| Died | 5 June 2012 (aged 29) |
| Resting place | Craiova |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer Science |
| Institutions | AT&T Labs |
| Thesis | Lower bound techniques for data structures (2008) |
| Doctoral advisor | Erik Demaine |
Pătrașcu attended Carol I National College in Craiova. As a high school student, he won 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completing his thesis under the supervision of Erik Demaine in 2008.
Pătrașcu’s work was concerned with fundamental questions about basic data structures. Pătrașcu received the Machtey Award for the best student paper at the Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science in 2008, and the Presburger Award from the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science in 2012, for breaking "many old barriers on fundamental data structure problems, not only revitalizing but also revolutionizing a field that was almost silent for over a decade."
Pătrașcu died in 2012 after suffering from brain cancer for a year and a half, and was buried in his native city.