Michael Freedman

Michael J. Freedman is the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, leading research in distributed systems, networking, and security. He co-founded Timescale, a cloud platform for time-series data, and previously co-founded Illuminics Systems (acquired by Neustar). His work includes Ethane (basis for OpenFlow/SDN), CoralCDN, and contributions to blockchain-based systems like Blockstack.

Education:

• Ph.D., Computer Science, New York University (Courant Institute), 2007
• M.Eng. and S.B., MIT

Research Interests: Freedman’s research spans distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, time-series databases, privacy-enhancing technologies, and software-defined networking. He emphasizes practical, scalable solutions for real-world challenges in networking and storage.

Article Trends: Recent work focuses on time-series database optimizations (e.g., tiered storage, compression), cloud platform efficiency, GPU acceleration, and blockchain applications. His publications address fault tolerance, query optimization, and resource management in distributed systems.

• Awards: ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, PECASE (2010), Sloan Fellowship, multiple best-paper awards at SIGCOMM, ICFP, and TCC.

Advising & Grants: Technical advisor to Blockstack and recipient of grants from NSF, ONR, and DARPA. His research has been commercialized through startups like Timescale and Illuminics.

Affiliations: Member of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), exploring societal impacts of technology.