Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Research Group is proud to announce that Prof. Andy Pavlo is the recipient of the 2026 IEEE Technical Committee on Data Engineering (TCDE) Ramez Elmasri Outstanding Database Education Award. The award is presented annually to an educator who has made exceptional contributions to database education.

Over the last decade, Pavlo’s freely available online courses and open educational materials have become foundational resources for students, engineers, and researchers worldwide studying database management systems. These courses include his widely celebrated Introduction to Database Systems and Advanced Database Systems series.

In a statement following the announcement, Pavlo credited the students who have helped organize, manage, and improve CMU-DB’s courses over the last decade:

“I want to thank our many teaching assistants over the years for all their help. I also want to especially thank our course DJs for keeping the beats fresh in our lectures.” Pavlo said. “We especially pour one out tonight for DJ Drop Tables. Gone too soon. That transaction is committed, but the memories never roll back.”

The award is named in honor of Ramez Elmasri, a longtime professor at University of Texas at Arlington and one of the most influential educators in the history of database systems. Elmasri was best known as the co-author of the widely used textbook Fundamentals of Database Systems, which helped train generations of students and practitioners around the world.

The awards ceremony is on Wednesday, May 6th, at the 2026 ICDE Conference in Montréal, Canada.