Happened to come across some tweets and then a couple of news items that said Rajeev Motwani passed away suddenly. Frankly, I’d heard of his name only once before, and even then wasn’t able to recall who he was but a little browsing soon got me up to speed.

An IIT-Kanpur alumnus and a Stanford University professor who was a mentor to Google co-founders Brin and Page, he died when he accidentally drowned in his swimming pool. He didn’t know how to swim. He was only 47 and probably at the peak of his academic and professional life at this point of time.

In a condolence Brin posted on his blog, he said ”In addition to being a brilliant computer scientist, Rajeev was a very kind and amicable person and his door was always open. No matter what was going on with my life or work, I could always stop by his office for an interesting conversation and a friendly smile. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.”

At Stanford, Motwani founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS), from which he mentored many start-ups and was a major catalyst in the Silicon Valley eco-system.

R.I.P, Rajeev.

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