Eamonn Keogh didn’t follow the typical path into academia. The native of Dublin, Ireland, was a high school dropout when he emigrated to the United States at age 19. While working in mechanical trades, he took a computer-aided drawing course and unexpectedly became hooked on computers.
“That was the first time I ever used a computer, and the computer part was more interesting than the drawing part was, so I took more computer science classes and never stopped,” he said. “I wasn’t one of those kids who loved computers, I never touched a computer keyboard until I was 21 or 22.”
Today Keogh is an internationally renowned data scientist and distinguished professor of computer science in the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering at UC Riverside. He’s also the inaugural Ross Family Endowed Term Chair, a position he held in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from July 2020 through June 2024. With the assistance of the chair fund, Keogh has engaged in research with colleagues from across campus in disciplines ranging from nematology to sociology and has mentored 30 Ph.D. students in their investigations of cutting-edge data science topics including anomaly detection. Like their professor, these students have had new worlds opened to them through education.
“What I like is UCR is very much a university for first-generation students, which I was too,” Keogh said. “I’ve had students whose parents literally picked fruit in the field, and they worked hard for their kids to go to college, and it’s really fun seeing those kids graduate with degrees in computer science and go on to Google and have wonderful careers.”
Everett and Imogene Ross and their three children attended UCR. Long-time friends and neighbors of Marlan and Rosemary Bourns, the Ross family established an endowed fund in 2018 to support two computer science chairs, The Ross Family Endowed Term Chair and the Everett C. and Imogene G. Ross Endowed Term Chair.
“It is humbling and exciting to observe the astounding degree of scientific excellence in every corner of the campus.”
“The Ross Family Endowed Term Chair is a symbol of excellence within UCR’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, allowing the college to draw in highly talented individuals to address critical societal challenges by giving them the support and stability needed to advance their pioneering research,” said Christopher Lynch, dean of the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering and William R. Johnson Jr. Family Chair. “This helps to cultivate the innovation pipeline that influences the future technological landscape.”
Newly named Ross Family Endowed Term Chair Vagelis Papalexakis, a specialist in data science and artificial intelligence, has seen the benefits chair funds have on research and technological advancement during his tenure at UCR.
“It is humbling and exciting to observe the astounding degree of scientific excellence in every corner of the campus,” he said. “UCR having endowed chairs enables different units on campus to reward excellence in a very effective manner since it provides recognition, appreciation, and tangible benefits for one’s research.”
Now a chairholder himself, Papalexakis foresees the Ross Family endowed fund impacting his work tremendously.
“I was ecstatic, honored, and humbled to find out that I would be named the new Ross Family Chair,” he said. “Receiving the chair title is a recognition from peers that I immensely respect and admire is a great motivation to continue and intensify my research efforts.”
