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Margo Seltzer
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Margo Seltzer

Computer scientist who co-created Berkeley DB

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Database library
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Margo Seltzer is an American computer scientist who co-created Berkeley DB, an embedded database used in countless applications, and co-founded Sleepycat Software. A long-time Harvard professor, she now teaches at the University of British Columbia.

Biography

Education

Seltzer studied applied mathematics at Harvard’s Radcliffe College and earned her PhD in computer science at UC Berkeley in 1992.

Berkeley DB

At Berkeley she and Keith Bostic developed Berkeley DB, a fast library for storing data inside applications. It was used in email servers, directory services and early versions of many open-source systems.

Sleepycat

In 1996 they founded Sleepycat Software to support Berkeley DB; Oracle bought it in 2006.

Teaching

Seltzer taught at Harvard for over 20 years, researching file systems and data provenance, and in 2018 joined the University of British Columbia. She was president of the USENIX Association.

Timeline

  1. 1992

    PhD from UC Berkeley

  2. 1992

    Joins the Harvard faculty

  3. 1996

    Co-founds Sleepycat Software

  4. 2006

    Oracle buys Sleepycat

  5. 2018

    Joins the University of British Columbia

Notable works

  • 1991

    Berkeley DB Database library

    With Keith Bostic.

Did you know?

  1. 1

    Berkeley DB is an “embedded” database with no separate server.

  2. 2

    She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

  3. 3

    Her husband Keith Bostic was a key BSD Unix developer.

Connections

Related people

Frequently asked

Who is Margo Seltzer?

Margo Seltzer is an American computer scientist who co-created Berkeley DB, an embedded database used in countless applications, and co-founded Sleepycat Software. A long-time Harvard professor, she now teaches at the University of British Columbia.

Where is Margo Seltzer from?

Margo Seltzer was born in United States.

What is Margo Seltzer known for?

Margo Seltzer is best known for Berkeley DB; Sleepycat Software; file systems research.

References

  1. Margo Seltzer — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Margo Seltzer (Q14237) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Margo Seltzer”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Wikipedia
Filed under DatabasesWomen in computing Computer ScientistEntrepreneurProfessor

About this profile

Cite this page

“Margo Seltzer.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/margo-seltzer

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