First Woman to Receive ACM Turing Award

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Cameron Wilson <wilson_c () HQ ACM ORG>
Date: February 21, 2007 7:39:36 AM EST
To: USACM-INFO () LISTSERV ACM ORG
Subject: First Woman to Receive ACM Turing Award
Reply-To: Cameron Wilson <wilson_c () HQ ACM ORG>

Release is below; here is a link to the LA Times story:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi- 
turing21feb21,1,4359007
.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo

IBM Fellow Emerita Frances Allen Responsible for Innovations to High  
Speed
Computing; Work Inspired Generations of Computer Scientists

NEW YORK, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- ACM, the Association for Computing
Machinery, has named Frances E. Allen the recipient of the 2006 A.M.  
Turing
Award for contributions that fundamentally improved the performance of
computer programs in solving problems, and accelerated the use of high
performance computing. This award marks the first time that a woman has
received this honor. The Turing Award, first presented in 1966, and  
named
for British mathematician Alan M. Turing, is widely considered the  
"Nobel
Prize in Computing." It carries a $100,000 prize, with financial support
provided by Intel Corporation.

Allen, an IBM Fellow Emerita at the T.J. Watson Research Center, made
fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of program
optimization, which translates the users' problem-solving language
statements into more efficient sequences of computer instructions. Her
contributions also greatly extended earlier work in automatic program
parallelization, which enables programs to use multiple processors
simultaneously in order to obtain faster results. These techniques  
have made
it possible to achieve high performance from computers while programming
them in languages suitable to applications. They have contributed to
advances in the use of high performance computers for solving  
problems such
as weather forecasting, DNA matching, and national security functions.

"Fran Allen's work has led to remarkable advances in compiler design and
machine architecture that are at the foundation of modern high- 
performance
computing," said Ruzena Bajcsy, Chair of ACM's Turing Award  
Committee, and
professor of Electrical and Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of California, Berkeley. "Her contributions have spanned  
most of
the history of computer science, and have made possible computing  
techniques
that we rely on today in business and technology. It is interesting  
to note
Allen's role in highly secret intelligence work on security codes for  
the
organization now known as the National Security Agency, since it was  
Alan
Turing, the namesake of this prestigious award, who devised  
techniques to
help break the German codes during World War II," said Bajcsy, who is
Emeritus Director of the Center for Information Technology Research  
in the
Interest of Society (CITRIS) at Berkeley.

"Fran Allen's work on the Parallel TRANslation (PTRAN) project built  
on her
earlier work on program optimization," said Andrew A. Chien, Intel's  
Vice
President of Research. "Over the years, this foundation has enabled the
advance of programming-productivity based on the co-evolution of higher
level programming language and optimization technologies. It is  
particularly
timely that this award comes as parallel computing is becoming an  
element of
the most pervasive of computing platforms - laptop and desktop personal
computers - and the opportunities for new and important contributions to
parallel programming and efficient implementation abound," he said.

In 1989, Allen was the first woman to be named an IBM Fellow. In  
2000, IBM
created the Frances E. Allen Women in Technology Mentoring Award,  
naming her
as its first recipient. As her Turing Award citation notes, she has  
been an
inspirational mentor to younger researchers and a leader within the
computing community. She is an Advisory Council Member of the Anita Borg
Institute for Women and Technology, whose goal is to increase the
participation of women in all aspects of technology. She also  
received the
first Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership, which was presented at
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 2004.

Background

Allen joined IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in 1957, to teach  
FORTRAN, a
revolutionary high-level programming language, to the scientists at IBM.
FORTRAN allowed scientists and engineers to write programs that closely
resembled the mathematical formulas they normally relied on. Allen
recognized the opportunity to address a grand challenge of high  
performance
computers -- delivering the performance potential of computers to solve
problems without exposing the underlying computer infrastructure.

Allen's 1966 paper, Program Optimization, laid the conceptual basis for
systematic analysis and transformation of computer programs. Her 1970
papers, Control Flow Analysis and A Basis for Program Optimization
established "intervals" as the context for efficient and effective  
data flow
analysis and optimization. Much of her early work was done in  
collaboration
with John Cocke, an IBM computer scientist who died in 2002. Her 1971  
paper
with John Cocke, A Catalog of Optimizing Transformations, provided  
the first
description and systematization of optimizing transformations. She  
developed
and implemented her methods as part of building compilers for the IBM
STRETCH- HARVEST and the experimental Advanced Computing System. This  
work
established the feasibility of modern machine- and language-independent
optimizers.

In 1984, she formed and led IBM's PTRAN project to address the emerging
challenge of parallel computers, which simultaneously executes  
related tasks
for faster results. This project led to many advances including the  
concept
of the program dependence graph, the primary structuring method used  
by most
parallelizing compilers today.

In 1995, Allen was president of the IBM Academy of Technology, a global
organization of IBM technical leaders charged with providing technical
advice to the company. Before she retired in 2002, she was a Senior
Technical Advisor to the Research Vice President for Solutions,  
Applications
and Services. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering,  
the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical
Society. She was named a Fellow of ACM in 1994.

Allen has been a member of the Computer Science and  
Telecommunications Board
(CSTB), the Computing Research Association (CRA) Board, and the National
Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering  
(CISE)
Advisory Board. Her recent professional activities for ACM include
membership on ACM's Job Migration Task Force, which produced the widely
reported "Globalization and Offshoring of Software" study
http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport/pdf/fullfinal.pdf. In  
addition, she
was active in the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages
(SIGPLAN), and has served on the editorial boards of several ACM  
journals.

Among Allen's teaching and lecturing roles were visiting professor at  
New
York University from 1970-73; consulting professor at Stanford  
University;
the Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer and Mackay Lecturer at the
University of California, Berkeley in 1988-89; and Regents Lecturer  
at the
University of California, San Diego in 1997. She was awarded Honorary  
Doctor
of Science degrees from the University of Alberta in 1991; from Pace
University in 1999; and from the University of Illinois, Urbana- 
Champaign in
2004. She graduated from Albany State Teachers College -- now the State
University of New York at Albany -- with a degree in mathematics. She
received a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan.

ACM will present the Turing Award at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on  
June
9, 2007, in San Diego, CA.

About the ACM A.M. Turing Award

The ACM A.M. Turing Award was named for Alan M. Turing, the British
mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of
computing, and who was a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis  
of the
German Enigma cipher during World War II. Since its inception, the  
Turing
Award has honored the computer scientists and engineers who created the
systems and underlying theoretical foundations that have propelled the
information technology industry. For additional information, click on
http://www.acm.org/awards/taward.html.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is an
educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing  
educators,
researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and
address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's  
collective
voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and
recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional  
growth of
its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career
development, and professional networking.
--
Cameron Wilson
Director of Public Policy
Association for Computing Machinery
1100 Seventeenth Street, NW
Suite 507
Washington DC 20036
202 659-9712
www.acm.org/usacm


-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/@now
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com