Thomas Munro
PostgreSQL hacker @ Microsoft
I am a PostgreSQL developer and committer based in New Zealand. I began working full time on PostgreSQL and related technologies about 9 years ago, first at EnterpriseDB and now Microsoft. Before that I worked with Unix and relational databases in the web, finance and software industries for a couple of decades. Some of my PostgreSQL interests include query parallelism, taming resource management, transaction machinery, portability, and modernizing database/operating system interfaces including disk I/O. My other interests include hacking on the FreeBSD operating system, trying to learn other languages and trying to ride various forms of transport with wheels and fins.
POSETTE 2026 Keynote
Postgres 19 Hackers Panel: What’s In, What’s Out, & What’s Next
What happens in the lead-up to a Postgres feature freeze, and why do some patches make the cut while others stall? Join four of the project’s open source contributors—Álvaro Herrera, Heikki Linnakangas, Melanie Plageman, and Thomas Munro—for a conversation about Postgres 19. With a combined ~75 years of experience hacking on Postgres, this panel will talk about some of the successful collaborations that pushed key features into Postgres 19, as well as the "missed the boat" list: features they wished had made the PG19 freeze (but are still in the works for the future.)
You’ll also get an early look at big-ticket items being engineered for Postgres 20 and beyond (yes, including multithreading.) From the technical hurdles of working on Postgres to the personal reasons that keep these hackers coming back to this database, you’ll get a peek into what’s coming next with Postgres.
Note: At the time of the recording of this keynote panel in April 2026, Postgres 19 will have just reached feature freeze and is expected to reach GA in the Sep/Oct 2026 timeframe.
Past Talks
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A Walking Tour of PostgreSQL (POSETTE 2024)
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Parallelism in PostgreSQL 15 (Citus Con 2023)
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Queues in PostgreSQL (Citus Con 2022)
Podcast Appearances
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How I got started as a dev and in Postgres with Melanie Plageman & Thomas Munro
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