Update: Google has posted more about Rajeev on the Google Research Blog.
Original Article: Rajeev Motwani, an angel investor and Stanford professor, who served as something of a mentor to the Google co-founders as they were getting Google off the ground, was found dead in a swimming pool on Friday from an apparent drowning.
To understand a little bit about what role he has played in the lives of Google’s creators, Sergey Brin wrote the following on his personal blog:
When my interest turned to data mining, Rajeev helped to coordinate a regular meeting group on the subject. 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.
Eventually, as Google emerged from Stanford, Rajeev remained a friend and advisor as he has with many people and startups since. Of all the faculty at Stanford, it is with Rajeev that I have stayed the closest and I will miss him dearly. Yet his legacy and personality lives on in the students, projects, and companies he has touched. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.
That is only an excerpt. You can read the rest of Brin’s words here. Brin is certainly not the only one to lament the loss of Matwani. A simple blog search, news search, or Twitter search for his name will show you the impact he has had on the technology industry.
Motwani was 47 years old and had a wife and kids. We at Murdok would like to express our condolences to Motwani’s family and friends. Om Malik, who knew Rajeev personally, has some heartfelt words at GigaOm. More on Rajeev here.
