In the last year or so since joining Yahoo!, I�ve met some really amazing people--folks I continue to learn from on a daily basis. It�s one of the best things about being here. So in that vein, I�m psyched that today we�re announcing that UC Berkeley Professor Marc Davis will be joining Yahoo! as the Founding Director of the Yahoo! Research Labs--Berkeley.

I�ve known Marc since we were both grad students at the MIT Media Lab back in the early 90�s. I always loved the Media Lab�s "Demo or Die!" credo (as opposed to mainstream academia�s more typical "Publish or Perish!" version.) One of the reasons I have so much respect for Marc�s work is that in addition to being a world-renowned academic, he�s also done the entrepreneurial thing (as founder/CTO of his own startup), worked in a corporate research environment, etc. Marc�s research has that "it" factor -- inevitably, it leaves me wondering "Why didn�t I think of that?" His work lives at the nexus of the field�s most exciting areas: social computing, context-aware computing, mobile and media. In fact, to a large extent, his work and research embodies the Yahoo! Search "FUSE" vision.

I�ve had a number of friends who are MIT Professors give talks at Yahoo! over the past year--incredible pioneers like Sandy Pentland, Judith Donath, Henry Lieberman, and John Maeda. When Marc visited last year, we discovered huge overlap in vision, mission and direction. After his talk, we were left with one lingering question: "How do we get Marc to Yahoo!?" His response: "Flattered... but the timing isn�t great." Alas, Marc was mid-way through his tenure track position at UC Berkeley.

However, over the subsequent months it became clear to Marc--based on the people he met here, the resources we�re investing, and the vision he saw--that Yahoo! presented an opportunity that was too good to turn down. So we worked together to structure an agreement with the University that afforded Marc the best of both worlds. He could have his cake, and eat it too... and serve up a slice to nearly 400M monthly visitors to boot.

Marc is a "talent magnet," and many of his foremost students and collaborators will be joining us too. Thus, this announcement foreshadows some very interesting developments at Yahoo! Research Labs.

It�s definitely a special time in the online world in general, and specifically at Yahoo!. The opportunity to work on a daily basis with social media vanguards like Marc Davis, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake of Flickr ensures I learn something every day. Almost like being back on campus.

Bradley Horowitz
Dir. Technology Development
Yahoo! Search