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Revised – 9/17/03 LASEWICZ: This is an oral history interview with Dr. Pat Selinger, IBM Fellow, on July 30, 2003, conducted by IBM Corporate Archivist, Paul Lasewicz. Welcome and thank you for coming. SELINGER: Youre very welcome. LASEWICZ: I think well start off by talking about your background first. Can you describe your current position and title and what you do? SELINGER: Im an IBM Fellow, which is the senior most technical recognition. And then in addition to that Im a vice president of data management architecture and technology. So, thats a position where I really have overall responsibility for the architecture and direction that data management takes and its product direction and investment. LASEWICZ: What schooling and education have you had? SELINGER: Harvard University Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. in the subject called applied mathematics, which is their word for computer science. You apply mathematics to biology or to economics and in my case to computers. -1- LASEWICZ: What courses interested you? Why did you choose mathematics? SELINGER: I was a math major but got into programming classes and really loved that much more. Applied mathematics is really the way to get into more of the compiler or operating systems kinds of education classes. Those were the ones that interested me. I had no classes on databases whatsoever. I didnt even really know what made a database at the time that I came out and joined IBM. LASEWICZ: When did you first become aware of them and what attracted you to them? SELINGER: I wrote a paper in programming languages that was given at a conference in San Diego in November. I was in school i