Features

By Pete Carey, Mercury News 06/07/2009

Rajeev Motwani, 47, the Stanford University computer science professor who mentored Google's co-founders when they were graduate students, has died from a freak accident at his Atherton home.

Motwani apparently drowned Friday morning in a backyard swimming pool at the home he purchased three years ago. Friends said he did not know how to swim, but was planning to take lessons. While little official information was available, friends speculated that Motwani may have slipped and fallen in the pool. Paramedics were called when his body was found, and he was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:28 p.m., according to the San Mateo County coroners office.

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Sergey Brin writes

Officially, Rajeev was not my advisor, and yet he played just as big a role in my research, education, and professional development. 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.

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.

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