QIAN LI - PROFESSIONAL BIO ========================= NAME: Qian Li (李芊, pronounced "lǐ qiān") CURRENT ROLE: Co-founder, DBOS, Inc. EDUCATION: Ph.D. Computer Science, Stanford University CONTACT: qianli@cs.stanford.edu WEBSITE: https://qianli.dev PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY ------------------- Qian Li is a co-founder of DBOS, Inc., a startup focused on database-oriented serverless computing platforms. She completed her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Stanford University, where she conducted research in computer systems, databases, and architecture under the guidance of Christos Kozyrakis, with close collaboration with Matei Zaharia and Mike Stonebraker. EDUCATION --------- • Ph.D., Computer Science, Stanford University (2017-2022) • M.S., Computer Science, Stanford University (2019) • B.Sc., Computer Science and Technology, Peking University (2017) RESEARCH INTERESTS ----------------- • Database Systems • Cloud Computing and Serverless Architectures • Distributed Systems • Computer Architecture • Operating Systems • Machine Learning Infrastructure KEY RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS ------------------------- DBOS (Database-oriented Operating System): Led development of a revolutionary OS design where all system state is represented as database tables, enabling easy scaling and evolution without whole-system refactoring. Built Apiary, a database-backed FaaS platform, and R³, a time-travel debugger for database-backed applications. INFaaS (Inference-as-a-Service): Co-developed a model-less and managed inference serving system that abstracts resource management and model selection for machine learning inference. Achieved high throughput and low SLO violations while minimizing cost through heterogeneous compute resources and efficient sharing. Arachne Thread Management: Contributed to a user-level thread implementation providing low latency and high throughput for short-lived threads. Restructured Memcached to reduce performance interference and provide finer-grain load balancing. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION --------------------- • Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 (2025) • USENIX ATC Best Paper Award for INFaaS (2021) • Cadence Women in Technology Scholarship (2019) • Stanford School of Engineering Fellowship (2017) • National Scholarship, China (2016) RECENT ACTIVITIES ---------------- • Co-organizing South Bay Systems Club - a systems research community • Regular speaker at conferences and podcasts on serverless computing and database systems • Active contributor to open-source database and systems projects SELECTED PUBLICATIONS -------------------- • "Transactions and Serverless are Made for Each Other" - Communications of the ACM (2024) • "R³: Record-Replay-Retroaction for Database-Backed Applications" - VLDB (2023) • "INFaaS: Automated Model-less Inference Serving" - USENIX ATC (2021) [Best Paper] • "DBOS: A DBMS-oriented Operating System" - VLDB (2022) TEACHING EXPERIENCE ------------------ • EE282: Computer Systems Architecture, Stanford (TA, Winter 2020) • CS349D: Cloud Computing Technology, Stanford (TA, Autumn 2018) • Compiler Design, Peking University (TA, Spring 2017) • Introduction to Computer Systems, Peking University (TA, Autumn 2015) PROFESSIONAL PROFILES -------------------- • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qianli-dev • GitHub: https://github.com/qianl15 • Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hNQoeOYAAAAJ • ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7115-7633 • Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/qianli.dev This bio is current as of August 2025. For the most up-to-date information, please visit https://qianli.dev