A US computer science professor best known for his
association with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin has
drowned at his home in California.
Rajeev
Motwani could not swim and his death is believed to have been
accidental, according to
US
media reports.
Motwani mentored Page and Brin while they were students at
Stanford University.
"He played just as big a role in my research, education, and
professional development," Brin wrote in a
blog
posting.
Brin said when he and Page began to work together on the
research that would lead to Google, Rajeev was there to support
them and guide them through challenges.
"Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good
chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it," Brin
wrote.
A paper written in 1998 by Brin, Page, Motwani and fellow
Stanford professor Terry Winograd described the development of
Google's search engine.
Motwani helped co-ordinate a regular meeting on data mining,
which was the technology at the heart of Google's success, said
Brin.