Creating one of the first colleges of computer sciences was groundbreaking forty years ago—especially when four of the six champions were women. One of those leaders was Betty Salzberg, Khoury professor emeritus.

Salzberg recalls that the group’s proposal for a new college “blew the accreditors out of sky…. Not only did we have an incredible program, but we also had all this supporting research to back it up.”

At the time, Salzberg was teaching programming courses in the mathematics department, but she and her colleagues could see the promise of the computing field and decided to pursue the idea of a stand-alone college of computer sciences separate from the colleges of engineering and arts and sciences. Their proposal contained an innovative idea at the time: concentrations within the degree offering. This idea continues to flourish to this day.

Once the college was approved and began admitting students, Salzberg enjoyed a 26-year tenure at Khoury. In total Salzberg was a faculty member for 37 years at Northeastern by the time she retired in 2008. During her time at Khoury College she raised significant grant income, served on several college and university committees, and continually mentored PhD students—a passion for her.

Her area of expertise was database systems, which she taught at the undergraduate and graduate level. She was elected as an IEEE Fellow for her contributions to the database field including access methods, online reorganization methods, and robust application techniques in computing. Much of this work was in collaboration with David Lomet of the Microsoft Corporation and with Khoury graduate students.

Not only did we have an incredible program, but we also had all this supporting research to back it up

During her tenure at Khoury, she saw the college’s reputation and reach continue to grow. She remembers when she came to Northeastern in 1971, most students were from the Boston area. “We were a streetcar university,” she recalled. Over time, the college and university expanded nationally and internationally. One constant she noted was the draw of the co-op program.

Salzberg said that she “had a great time working at Northeastern.” She sees some of CS colleagues from time to time and looks back at her time fondly.