Google Founders' Mentor Rajeev Motwani Dies

Google Founders' Mentor Rajeev Motwani Dies

Techtree News Staff, Jun 08, 2009 1136 hrs IST

Rajeev Motwani was a Stanford University computer science professor

Rajeev Motwani, a Stanford University computer science professor, who played a mentor to Google founders' Sergey Brin and Larry Page, died in a swimming accident at his home in Palo Alto, California on June 5.

Motwani, 47, is survived by his wife Asha Jadeja and daughters Naitri and Anya.

Brin wrote in his recent post, "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." He added, "Even though I was just one of hundreds of graduate students in the department, he always made the time and effort to help. Later, when Larry and I began to work together on the research that would lead to Google, Rajeev was there to support us and guide us through challenges, both technical and organizational."

Condolences from common people as well as those who knew Motwani personally have been pouring on the web. Rajeev Motwani was born in Jammu & Kashmir, India. According to Stanford University website, Motwani completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur and then achieved a Ph.D. in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley.