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Cover of the FIU Fall 2026 Magazine: Shonda and Shalisha Witherspoon and Dr. Rishe Cover of the 2016 NSF Breakthroughs Compendium: CAKE Center Cover of the 2014 NSF Breakthroughs Compendium |
Naphtali David Rishe, Ph.D.
The inaugural Outstanding University Professor, Florida International University
Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
Member, the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida
Founding Director, NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement at FIU, FAU, and Greenwich U
Director, FIU High Performance Database Research Center
Director, Geospatial Laboratory
| Author: | 4 books on database design, geography, and interfaces. |
| Author: | 430 papers in journals and proceedings (citations: 6900, h-index: 39, i10 index: 130). |
| Editor: | 9 books on database management, high performance computing, fuzzy logic, and health informatics. |
| Inventor: | 30 U.S. patents on database querying, semantic database performance, Internet data extraction, health informatics, and transportation. Dr. Rishe is the most prolific inventor at FIU. Rishe is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (Fellow's Medal awarded in November 2021). |
| Innovator: | featured on the covers of both latest (2014 and 2016) National Science Foundation (NSF) Compendia of Technology Breakthroughs of Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers -- books published by NSF every two years until 2016 to advise U.S. Congress and Public on the state of science and technology. |
| Grantee: | awarded as the Principal Investigator $60 million in research grants by Government and Industry, including NASA, NSF, IBM, DoI, USGS, and DOT; Rishe's current grants as the P.I. include a $2.6M NSF grant for a Geospatial System for Multimodal Environmental Observations (2020-2025) and the $700K subproject P.I.-ship of a $1.4M Biscayne Bay Prediction System (2023-2025). Rishe is also currently a co-Principal Investigator on major collaborative grants, such as the $3.3M NSF grant for a Comprehensive Study of Alzheimer's Disease (2019-2025), a $300K DHS grant for Activity Recognition (2023-2025), and a $150K DHS grant for AI-driven Threat Detection (2024-2025). |
| Outstanding Professor: | the first FIU professor awarded the title of Outstanding University Professor. Rishe received the 2021 IBM Global University Program Academic Award. In 2025 elected to Member, The Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL). |
| Mentor: | recognized on the cover of the Fall 2016 FIU magazine for graduating top students, as well as the herald of the 2020 FIU Next Horizon infomercial. |
| Architect: | the TerraFly project, extensively covered by worldwide press, including the New York Times, USA Today, NPR, Science and Nature journals, and FOX TV News. Of the 53,000 NSF-funded projects in 2009, it chose 120, including Rishe's TerraFly, for the NSF annual report to Congress. |
| Leader: | Director of the FIU Database Research Center, Founding Director of FIU-FAU NSF Industry-University Center, Chair of the Forum of Outstanding Professors, serves on editorial boards and NSF panels. |
| Humanitarian: | pro-bono director of the Brain Center and other foundations and Florida "guru" on Storm, Beach Safety, and Housing. |
| EDUCATION: | |
| 1981-1984 | Ph.D., Computer Science Department, Tel Aviv University |
| 1979-1981 | M.Sc., Computer Science Department, Israel Institute of Technology (Technion), |
| 1975-1979 | B.Sc. Summa Cum Laude, Computer Science Department, Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) |
| ACADEMIC: | |
| 2000- | Outstanding University Professor of Florida International University |
| 1987- | Professor (Full Professor 1992-, Associate Professor 1987-1992, tenured in 1990), School of Computing, Florida International University |
| 1984-1987 | Visiting Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| 1981-1984 | Instructor, Computer Science Department, Tel Aviv University |
| LEADERSHIP: | |
| 1994- | Director, FIU High-performance Database Research Center |
| 2012-2014, 2024- | Chair, FIU Forum of Outstanding Professors |
| 2008-2022 | Director, NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center at FIU, FAU, Greenwich U: Center for Advanced Knowledge Enablement |
| 2008-2016 | Director, NSF CREST Center for Innovative Information Systems Engineering |
| 1997-2002 | Director, NASA Regional Applications Center in Miami |
| HONORS: | |
| 2000 | the inaugural Outstanding University Professor, Florida International University 🔗 |
| 2002 | winner (first prize) of the Miami Herald Business Plan Competition 🔗 |
| 2014 | Cover of Compendia of Technology Breakthroughs of Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers, NSF 🔗 |
| 2016 | Cover of Compendia of Technology Breakthroughs of Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers, NSF 🔗 |
| 2016 | Cover of FIU Magazine, Fall issue 🔗 |
| 2021 | Fellow Medal, National Academy of Inventors 🔗 |
| 2021 | Global University Program Academic Award, IBM 🔗 |
High Performance Database Research Center, Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, CASE-243, Miami, FL 33199; (305) 348-1706; http://cake.fiu.edu/Rishe
