Faculty Recruiting Support CICS

David W. Stemple Scholarship in Computing Established

Jane Yolen has created a new scholarship in loving memory of her husband, Emeritus Professor David Stemple. Once endowed, the fund will provide an annual David W. Stemple Scholarship in Computing to a first-year graduate student, with priority given to women, to help attract talented Computer Science graduate students in the systems research area.

Stemple, who died in 2006 after a long battle with cancer, was a member of the department's faculty from 1981 until his retirement in 1998. His main research dealt with developing complex database systems. He, along with students Tim Sheard, Subhasish Mazumdar, and Leo Fegaras, concentrated on the specification of database systems and the mechanical reasoning that is required to assure that specifications satisfy their intended properties.

Stemple was involved, starting in 1960, in the development of compilers, operating systems and database management systems in industry. Then, starting in 1966, he began working at the computing center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was associate director of the computing center from 1971 to 1981, and in 1977 he received his Ph.D. in in Computer Science from UMass Amherst working with Robert W. Taylor. Stemple joined the department as a faculty member in 1981. He served as Chair of the department from 1994 through 1998. He was also an Honorary Professor of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews.

After retiring, Stemple worked as an ornithologist concentrating on the song behaviors of certain montane thrushs from the Andes to the Alps.

To contribute to the fund for the David W. Stemple Scholarship in Computing at UMass Amherst, gifts may be made online, by calling 413-545-2771, or by check made out to UMass Amherst with designation to the David W. Stemple Scholarship in Computing and mailed to the College of Natural Sciences, 715 Lederle Graduate Tower, UMass Amherst, 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003.