Jeffrey P. Buzen

Jeffrey Peter Buzen (born May 28, 1943) is an American computer scientist in system performance analysis best known for his contributions to queueing theory. His 1973 paper Computational algorithms for closed queueing networks with exponential servers has guided the study of queueing network modeling.

Jeffrey P. Buzen
Born	(1943-05-28) May 28, 1943 Brooklyn
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Brown University (BS) Harvard University (MS, PhD)
Known for	Buzen's algorithm BGS Systems
Scientific career
Fields	queueing theory
Institutions	NIH
Thesis	Queueing network models of multiprogramming (1971[1])
Doctoral advisor	Ugo O. Gagliardi[2]
Doctoral students	Robert Metcalfe

Born in Brooklyn, Buzen holds three degrees in Applied Mathematics -- a BS (1965) from Brown University and, from Harvard University, an MS (1966) and a PhD (1971). He was a systems programmer at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland (1967–69), where his technique for optimizing the performance of a realtime biomedical computer system led to his first publication in a 1969 IEEE conference.[3] After completing his PhD, he held concurrent appointments as a Lecturer in Computer Science at Harvard and as a Systems Engineer at Honeywell (1971-76). Some of his students at Harvard have gone on to become well known figures in computing. Buzen was PhD thesis advisor for Robert M. Metcalfe (1973), Turing Award winner and co-inventor of Ethernet, and for John M. McQuillan (1974), developer the original adaptive routing algorithms used in ARPAnet and Internet. Buzen also co-taught (with Ugo Gagliardi) a two-semester graduate level course on Operating Systems (AM 251a/AM251br) that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took during his Freshman year (1973-74). Two decades later, Gates wrote "It was the only 'computer course' I officially ever took at Harvard." (private email, July 24, 1995)

His career in computer performance analysis has included the creation of several fundamental mathematical models, algorithms, and analysis procedures used in operational research, and the development of tools based on these models and procedures. With fellow Harvard applied mathematics PhDs Robert Goldberg and Harold Schwenk he co-founded BGS Systems in 1975 to support and market these modeling tools. This enterprise software company was listed on NASDAQ (BGSS) from 1983 to 1998. Buzen served as Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President until BGS Systems was acquired by BMC Software in 1998.

He has held leadership positions in various professional societies, including Association for Computing Machinery Sigmetrics, the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 7.3, and the Computer Measurement Group (serving as President during 2000 - 2001). In 1979, he received Computer Measurement Group's A.A. Michelson award[4] for technical excellence and professional contributions as a teacher and inspirer of others. He also received the ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement Award in 2010.[5]

Buzen was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 for contributions to the theory and commercial application of computer system performance models.