Communications of the ACM
ACM Recognizes Computing and Information Technology Leaders
ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery) has announced the winners of three awards honoring significant contributions to the computing and information technology field. These awards recognize dedicated professionals whose creativity and commitment to innovation have changed the way the world works and lives, from expanded opportunities for technical women and vastly improved processor efficiency to greater access to digitized computing research. The recipients will be honored at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on June 27, 2009, in San Diego, CA.
The awards include:
- The 2009-2010 Athena Lecturer Award to Susan Eggers, Microsoft Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. Eggers' work on computer architecture and experimental performance analysis led to the development of Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT), the first commercially viable multithreaded architecture. This technique improves the overall efficiency of certain processors known as superscalar and has been adopted by Intel, IBM, Sun and others. By simultaneously dispatching multiple instructions from multiple threads to the functional units, SMT processors can execute more than one instruction during a clock cycle. The result is significantly higher program speedups on workloads common to commercial databases, web servers, and scientific applications.
Eggers is a Fellow of ACM and IEEE as well as AAAS (the American Association for the Advancement of Science) and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The Athena Lecturer Award, given by the ACM Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W), recognizes women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. The award includes a $10,000 honorarium provided by Google Inc.
- The Distinguished Service Award to Telle Whitney for her profound impact on the participation of women in computing. Whitney, President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI), co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which has grown into an annual event. The conference is widely recognized as one of the best ways to encourage women to major in computing, continue on to graduate school, and pursue a computing career. Whitney took over the leadership of the Institute for Women and Technology in 2003, when its founder Anita Borg stepped aside due to declining health, and renamed it to honor Borg's creativity and passion for advancing the role of women in technology. Under Whitney's tenure, ABI initiated TechLeaders workshops to develop technical women's leadership skills, and the Women of Vision events to recognize distinguished technical women who have changed the world. Whitney, a former Secretary-Treasurer of ACM, served on the CRA Committee on the Status of Women (CRA-W) and co-founded the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT).
- The Outstanding Contribution Award to Wayne Graves and Bernard Rous of ACM Headquarters Staff for their pivotal roles in making the ACM Digital Library (DL) and its associated Guide to Computing Literature among the most complete and reliable sources of computing research in the world.
Graves, ACM Director of Information Systems, has led the design, implementation, and evolution of the ACM Digital Library and Guide over the past 10 years. He was cited for his technical leadership and initiative in evaluating, engaging, and shaping the latest technologies to ensure that the DL satisfies the growing demands of ACM members as a resource to organize, store, and use this massive digital collection.
Rous, ACM Deputy Director of Publications and Electronic Publishing Program Director, initiated the first prototype ACM Digital Library. Working with the broader publishing community, he oversaw the DL's ability to reflect the best thinking in defining a digital collection of the computing literature. His efforts are reflected in the DL's distinguishing features, which include extracted references from published material, full reference linking, and a new level of dynamic bibliometrics that captures usage and citation statistics.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing 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.
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