Rishe Naphtali

Dr. Rishe Naphtali is a distinguished Professor in the Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida International University (FIU), holding the Eminent Chair Professorship in Computer Science. He leads the High Performance Database Research Center (HPDRC) and the NSF I/UCRC for Advanced Knowledge Enablement. His expertise spans Geographic Information Systems, database management, and health informatics, with notable projects like TerraFly (a 100 TB aerial imagery database) and Medical Informatics.

Education: PhD in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University (1984). Research grants exceeding $55M from NSF, NASA, IBM, and others. Holder of 8 U.S. patents and over 300 publications, including 6 authored/edited books. Awards include the Inaugural FIU Outstanding University Professor designation.

Research focuses on geospatial data analytics, AI-driven medical diagnostics, and high-performance computing. His TerraFly project gained global media attention. Current work emphasizes Alzheimer’s disease prediction via multimodal data and maritime threat detection using neural networks.

Awards:

• Inaugural FIU Outstanding University Professor
• Eminent Chair Professor in Computer Science

Advising and grants: Over $55M in funded research, leading collaborative industry-university initiatives. Active in patent development (8 U.S. patents) and international conferences. Directs TerraFly and Medical Informatics programs.

Labs/Teams: HPDRC (database research), I/UCRC (advanced knowledge enablement), and TerraFly team. Engages in cross-disciplinary projects combining GIS, AI, and healthcare.