While most people count themselves fortunate to have one successful career in their lifetime, Bob Glushko, Ph.D. '79 has had the rare privilege of having three.

"I've been a researcher, an entrepreneur and now I'm an academic," states Glushko who is currently an adjunct full professor at UC Berkeley's School of Information. "I've enjoyed them all, so I'd have to say I've been pretty lucky."

Initially an engineering major at Stanford University, Glushko took an Experimental Psychology class one semester and found himself intrigued by the field. Eventually, he switched his major to Experimental Psychology and decided to pursue his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at UC San Diego.

After receiving his doctorate, Glushko began his career as a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he worked in the emerging fields of electronic publishing and document management. He continued working in research and development with various companies before engaging his entrepreneurial spirit in the 1990s. He went on to found or co-found four companies, including Veo Systems in Palo Alto, a start-up company which pioneered the use of XML for electronic business. XML is a format for representing content that turns the "browsable Web for eyes" into the "processable Web for computers."

When Veo was acquired by Commerce One in 1998, Glushko stayed on for a few years to lead XML architecture and standards activities and to serve as the evangelist for the company's XML strategy. But after a decade at the fast pace of Silicon Valley, in 2002 he decided to take a break and re-focus his energies elsewhere. As luck would have it, he was soon offered the opportunity to lecture at the School of Information at UC Berkeley.

"I'm not a 'real professor' like my wife, who's on the faculty at the Berkeley law school," he jokes, making light of his adjunct faculty status. "But I enjoy teaching very much and having time to do research. I even found the time to co-author a book, when before I hardly had the time to read one."

He continues: "Basically, I teach and think about how to be successful in the information-intensive and services-led economy of the 21st century. How should we organize and describe information? What's the best way to design information-driven business processes and services? How do we ensure that the information systems we build will work well for the people and businesses that use them? These are the kinds of questions I've asked throughout my career and that I'm now able to explore in my teaching and research."

In addition to his activities at UC Berkeley, Glushko co-founded and serves as a director for Document Engineering Services, an international consortium of expert consultants in applying standards for electronic business. But although Glushko is busy with all this, he hasn't forgotten UC San Diego. He has remained in close touch with many faculty members and has also made a series of gifts to support the Department of Cognitive Science.

"UCSD was good to me and I enjoyed being there," he says. "It was a nurturing place that I'm happy to give back to."

His gifts have established graduate student fellowships and a distinguished lecture series while his one-to-one matching gift challenged other alumni and friends to support the department.

"When I make a gift to the university I can see what my donations accomplish," he says. "I get letters from students thanking me for the fellowship support they receive—I can see the impact. It's great to be able to help."