Biography: Magdalena Balazinska is Professor, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering and former Director of the Allen School at the University of Washington. Her research interests are in the field of database management systems. Her current research focuses on multimodal data management as well as the intersection of AI and data management. Her earlier work made contributions in a variety of areas including stream processing, big data processing, and cloud computing.
Balazinska was appointed Director of the Allen School in 2019 and served until the conclusion of her term in 2026. Under her leadership, the Allen School significantly expanded in both size and impact. Today, the school graduates 50% more students than it did in 2019; over the same period, it hired 40 new faculty members who enhanced the school’s research and teaching in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, theory, systems, CS education, computational and synthetic biology and more.
As Director, Balazinska also led the launch of various research initiatives, including Computing for the Environment, Community-Engaged Computing, and new Grand Challenges. She further oversaw the modernization of the school’s core educational programs, including an overhaul of its introductory programming course sequence, the launch of a new undergraduate research program and Graduate Certificate in Modern AI Methods, the launch of new AI-Assisted Software Engineering and other new courses, and the creation of new minors in Data Science and AI. Prior to her leadership of the Allen School, Balazinska was the Director of the eScience Institute and the Associate Vice Provost for Data Science.
Balazinska is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, and an ACM Fellow. She holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006). Shortly after her arrival at the University of Washington, she was named a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellow (2007). Balazinska received the inaugural VLDB Women in Database Research Award (2016) for her work on scalable distributed data systems. She also received an ACM SIGMOD Test-of-Time Award (2017) and a CIDR Test-of-Time Award (2025) for her work on distributed stream processing and a 10-year most influential paper award (2010) from her earlier work on reengineering software clones. Baazinska also received an NSF CAREER Award (2009), the UW CSE ACM Teaching Award (2013), the Jean Loup Baer Career Development Professorship in Computer Science and Engineering (2014-2017), and multiple best-paper (and “best of”) awards.
