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Faculty member Malte Schwarzkopf, head of the ETOS and Systems groups of Brown University’s Department of Computer Science (Brown CS), has been chosen by Brown’s graduating senior class to receive the Barrett Hazeltine Citation. The other recipient was James Morone, John Hazen White Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies. 

“Each year, the Senior Class nominates and votes for two members of the faculty or administration for this award, which recognizes outstanding support, guidance, and teaching,” says Olivia Watson ‘16, Alumni Success and Student Engagement Coordinator of the Office of Alumni Relations. “The Citation is named for Professor Emeritus Barrett Hazeltine to permanently honor him for the many years he received the citation.”

The award was presented this year by the Class Coordinating Board Senior Co-Presidents Sally Zhang and Carina Sandoval. They read the dedication at the ceremony: “Your students have commended you for the infectious enthusiasm and energy you bring to the classroom. Your hard work to make them feel individually recognized in a room of hundreds has not gone unnoticed. An advocate for your students, you are known for your warmth and outstanding support. From fostering an inclusive undergraduate research environment, to demystifying an intimidating subject in Fundamentals of Computer Systems, your teaching has inspired many.”

The first and second Brown CS recipients of the award, respectively, were Paul Valiant, now at Purdue University, and faculty member Tom Doeppner, honored in the years 2016 and 2018. Malte was recognized at the President’s Reception for the class and joins numerous notable prior recipients, including Barbara Tannenbaum of the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies and Michael Lysaght, founder and director emeritus of Brown University’s Center for Biomedical Engineering. 

“I am delighted to receive this recognition from the class of 2023. It means a lot to me because the senior class of 2023 will always have a special place in my heart since 2023 is also my senior year at Brown; I arrived in fall 2019 as a wide-eyed new faculty member, just when students of the class of 2023 arrived as first-years,” Malte says. “The last few years have been a wild ride for all of us, but together we figured out whatever challenges life at Brown and under COVID threw at us, and managed to have fun along the way. I’m deeply touched that so many students felt that I made a positive difference to their experience at Brown and nominated me for the Hazeltine citation.”

Just last year, Malte’s teaching was honored with a Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship, awarded to regular untenured members of the faculty who have achieved a record of excellence and scholarship during their first years at Brown. His accomplishments that were recognized include introducing innovative methods in his intermediate computer systems course and collaborating with other faculty members to incorporate adversarial thinking from cybersecurity into CS education. When faced with the challenges of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, Schwarzkopf devised a “teaching room” setup that utilized three different camera perspectives tailored to the content being presented. This allowed for direct conversation with students, working with example programs, and drawing diagrams. 

This past semester, Malte taught CSCI 0300 Fundamentals of Computer Systems and his research focus is in the study of computer systems, with an emphasis on computer organization, operating systems, and concurrency and parallelism. In the fall semester, Malte will teach CSCI 2390 Privacy-Conscious Computer Systems, a seminar course focused on research on privacy-preserving systems.

For more information, click the link that follows to contact Brown CS Communications Manager Jesse C. Polhemus.