Owen Astrachan

Owen Astrachan is Professor of the Practice of Computer Science at Duke University, where he has taught across four decades and two millennia. His undergraduate degree in mathematics is from Dartmouth College, and he has an MAT and a PhD from Duke, which he earned after teaching high school for seven years. In addition to teaching computer science, he builds curricula and approaches to teaching intended for broad adoption and adaptation. Astrachan received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career award for introducing design patterns into undergraduate courses, was an inaugural recipient of the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Distinguished Education Fellow Award for emphasizing problem-oriented approaches, and is the Principal Investigator for the NSF/College Board CS Principles Project, which is designed to create a broader, more accessible AP course in computer science. In 1995, he received Duke’s Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching in Science Award. In 1998, he received the Outstanding Instructor Award while on sabbatical at the University of British Columbia. In 2002, he received Duke’s Richard K. Lublin award for his “ability to engender genuine intellectual excitement, ability to engender curiosity, knowledge of field, and ability to communicate that knowledge.” Owen enjoys thinking, running, collaborating, and pushing limits gently.