Jon Bentley earned a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from Stanford University in 1974, then an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina in 1976. He worked on computational geometry and multidimensional search problems. He then taught at Carnegie Mellon, where he became a tenured Associate Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics. His research there broadened to include programming techniques and computer architecture.
In 1982, Jon joined the Computing Science Research Center at Bell Labs, where he became a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1988. He developed a variety of little languages, especially to facilitate experimental analysis of algorithms. He worked on a variety of products including languages, library software, consumer telephones and switching systems.
Jon retired from Bell Labs in 2001 and joined Avaya Labs Research, where he worked on high-quality software and enterprise communication systems. He retired from Avaya in 2013.
Jon continues to conduct research in high-performance library software intended for a variety of architectures, and lectures frequently at universities. He serves on several advisory boards for computer science departments.
Jon has published hundreds of technical papers. Three of those are cited over 2000 times in Google Scholar, and two dozen have been cited more than 200 times. He holds over 40 US patents.
In his spare time, Jon is an avid mountaineer; in 2017 he finished making solo ascents of the 115 4000-foot peaks in the northeastern US. He is a wildland firefighter, and a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician, Search and Rescue Technician, and Fire Police Officer.
Jon is a member of the Computer Science & Engineering department's advisory council serving as its ex-officio member for the Dean’s Advisory Council.
