Luiz André Barroso

Luiz André Barroso (June 30, 1964 – September 16, 2023) was a Brazilian computer engineer. While working for Google, he pioneered the design of the modern data center. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Barroso worked at Digital Equipment Corporation prior to joining Google.

He joined Google in 2001 and was tasked with managing the design of the data center. Barroso is credited with redesigning Google's data centers and servers to be significantly more energy and cost-efficient. Barroso was a Google Fellow and lead the office of Cross-Google Engineering (XGE) from where he coordinated key technical initiatives that spanned multiple Google products. He worked as a VP of Engineering in the Core and Maps teams, and was a technical leader in areas such as Google Search and the design of Google’s computing platform. He also helped forge a consensus around Bluetooth contact tracing, which is estimated to have saved 10,000 lives in the UK.

Barroso was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Computing Machinery. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the ACM - IEEE CS Eckert–Mauchly Award in 2020. Barroso earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro. He also earned a Ph.D. at University of Southern California.

Barroso has published several technical papers and has co-authored “[https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-01761-2 The Datacenter as a Computer]”, the first textbook to describe the architecture of warehouse-scale computing systems.

Barroso was also a musician. He played his guitar nearly every day, both at home and at work, and he carried the instrument with him on every vacation, no matter how remote the destination. In 2023, he released an album titled “[https://www.beforebossa.com/ Before Bossa,]” playing and singing Brazilian and American jazz standards alongside the Brazilian jazz musicians Zeca Assumpção and [https://en.sergioreze.com.br/ Sergio Reze]. Provided by Wikipedia