Columbia mourns the lack of Edward Botwinick ’56CC, BS’58 and emeritus member of the LDEO Board, who handed away Jan. 24, 2025. Botwinick was an IT entrepreneur, a pioneer within the space of time-division multiplexing and a robust supporter of Columbia College and Columbia Soccer.
Botwinick obtained his BA in physics from Columbia Faculty in 1956 and his BS in electrical engineering in 1958. He started his profession working for US Semiconductor in 1958 and co-founded Silicon Transistor Corp. in 1960. From 1963 to 1967, he served as president and principal shareholder of Quantum Inc., a tape drive and scalable file storage producer.
In 1969, Botwinick helped discovered the info communications agency Timeplex, Inc., which grew to become a number one supplier of T1-based networks. For many years, T-1 primarily based networks have been the trade commonplace for transferring voice and information due to their excessive capability. On the time, Botwinick was working at Goldman Sachs, the place he was vice chairman of funding analysis from 1967 to 1977. From 1977 to 1988, he served as Timeplex’s chairman and chief government officer, overseeing a collection of more and more profitable T-1 multiplexers, which allowed for a number of alerts coming from a number of sources to be mixed and transmitted over a single communication line.
In 1988, Timeplex was acquired by Unisys Corp. and Botwinick assumed the roles of senior vice chairman and president of its Unisys Networks division. He retired from Unisys in 1989. In 1991, Botwinick based VideoServer Inc., a producer of telecommunications and networking tools, serving because the agency’s chairman and chief government officer till 1993. After a profitable profession as a serial entrepreneur, he grew to become the president of the Botwinick-Wolfensohn Basis, a household basis established by his father, Benjamin Botwinick.
“Ed cared deeply about the way forward for the planet and supported Lamont’s mission of primary Earth and ocean analysis over many many years. He additionally had an irrepressible, irreverent humorousness that by no means flagged and all the time entertained.”
– Maureen Raymo, co-founding dean emerita, Columbia Local weather College and former director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
A college trustee emeritus from 1988 to 1994, Botwinick sat on the board of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and passionately championed its mission. “Ed’s help of the observatory enabled lots of our scientists to proceed their crucial work within the Earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, and we have now all benefited from his a few years of considerate management and steering,” stated Steven Goldstein, interim director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “He has been a extremely appreciated member of our group.”
“Ed cared deeply about the way forward for the planet and supported Lamont’s mission of primary Earth and ocean analysis over many many years,” stated Maureen Raymo, co-founding dean emerita, Columbia Local weather College and former director of Lamont. “He additionally had an irrepressible, irreverent humorousness that by no means flagged and all the time entertained.”
Botwinick can be a former vice chair of the College Engineering Council. In 1996, Columbia Engineering named a multimedia digital studying facility after Botwinick: The Botwinick Gateway Laboratory within the Seeley W. Mudd engineering constructing.
Botwinick was an avid pilot and his Columbia connections have been huge. His father, Benjamin Botwinick graduated from Columbia Enterprise College in 1926 and his sister, Elaine R. Wolfensohn from the Graduate College of Arts and Sciences in 1961.
