He obtained his PhD and MSc degrees in Computer Science at the University of Toronto in 1994 and 1989, respectively. His research interests are in database systems, resource discovery and data visualization. Consens has contributed over 20 publications in databases, querying and visualization, hypertext, network management and software engineering. He is currently working with an industry consortium towards extending and standarizing (withing SQL/MM) database support for managing structured documents. He has been a consultant for Open Text Corporation.