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Professor receives prestigious IBM Global Academic Award

Professor receives prestigious IBM Global Academic Award

May 13, 2021 at 2:20pm

Naphtali Risheprofessor at the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, is the recipient of the 2021 IBM Global University Program Academic Award.

The award is a recognition of Rishe's ongoing research in Geospatial Data Analytics for Ecological Observations. Rishe also was recently elected to the highly distinguished rank of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow by the 2020 NAI Fellows Selection Committee and Board of Directors. 

“Dr. Rishe’s insight and his extensive experience in researching Geospatial Data Analytics are having a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society,” said John. L. Volakis, dean of the College of Engineering and Computing. 

Rishe is the inaugural FIU Outstanding University Professor. He has authored six books and edited seven on database management, location-based data, health informatics and high-performance computing. He holds 24 U.S. patents on database querying, semantic database performance, Internet data extraction and computer medicine. He has authored 450 papers in journals and proceedings on databases, software engineering, Geographic Information Systems, Internet and life sciences.

Considered a stellar faculty member at FIU, Rishe was awarded more than $55 million in research grants by government and industry, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, IBM, Department of Labor (DoI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Unites States Geological Survey (USGS).

Rishe is also the founder and director of the High-Performance Database Research Center at FIU (HPDRC) and of the NSF International FIU-FAU-Dubna-Greenwich Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement (I/UCRC).  

“We were delighted to hear this great news in recognition of Dr. Rishe’s work,” said Jason Liu, interim director of the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences. “Dr. Rishe has been a pioneer in his area, as witnessed by his many patents, and recent selection as a  National Academy of Inventors Fellow.” 

Rishe’s principal projects are TerraFly, a 100 TB database of aerial imagery and web-based GIS, and medical informatics. Rishe’s TerraFly project has been extensively covered by the worldwide press, including the New York Times, USA Today, NPR, Science and Nature journals, and FOX TV News. 

The IBM Academic Award program fosters collaboration between researchers at leading universities and IBM researchers and technologists worldwide. IBM Academic Awards also promote curriculum innovation to stimulate growth in emerging academic disciplines. IBM Global University Program Academic Award recipients must be full-time professors at an accredited university that has a doctorate or master’s degree in the nominee’s field. Winners are chosen based on their outstanding contributions to their respective fields of expertise. Rishe was also awarded $30,000 as part of this prestigious recognition. 

“I am honored to be nominated internally by IBMers and to be selected to receive this award,” Rishe said. “I also very much appreciate IBM’s continued support of ongoing and future initiatives at universities.”