Bob Tarjan, PhD

Robert (Bob) Tarjan is Chief Scientist at Intertrust Technologies Corporation and James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science at Princeton.

Bob received doctoral and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford in 1972 and 1971, after earning a bachelor’s in mathematics from Caltech. His academic experience has spanned Cornell, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, and NYU before joining Princeton’s faculty in 1985. He is the discoverer of several graph algorithms, including Tarjan’s off-line lowest common ancestors algorithm, and co-inventor of both splay trees and Fibonacci heaps. Bob’s private sector experience includes roles at institutions such as InterTrust Technologies, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. Professor Tarjan was the first winner of the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, established in 1982 and awarded every four years for outstanding contributions in mathematical aspects of information sciences by the International Mathematical Union.