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Barbara Liskov, first woman Ph.D. in Computer Science, wins Turing Medal PDF Print E-mail
Barbara Liskov Wins Turing Award

ACM cites 'foundational innovations' in programming language design

By Dr. Dobb's Journal
Mar 10, 2009
URL:http://www.ddj.com/hpc-high-performance-computing/215801518

 

Barbara Liskov has won the Association for Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award, one of the highest honors in science and engineering, for her pioneering work in the design of computer programming languages. Liskov's achievements underpin virtually every modern computing-related convenience in people's daily lives.

 

Liskov, the first U.S. woman to earn a PhD in computer science, was recognized for helping make software more reliable, consistent and resistant to errors and hacking. She is only the second woman to receive the honor, which carries a $250,000 purse and is often described as the "Nobel Prize in computing."

 

Liskov heads the Programming Methodology Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, where she has conducted research since 1972. Last year, she was named an Institute Professor, the highest honor awarded to an MIT faculty member.

 

Liskov's early innovations in software design have been the basis of every important programming language since 1975, including Ada, C++, Java and C#.

 

Liskov's most significant impact stems from her influential contributions to the use of data abstraction, a valuable method for organizing complex programs. She was a leader in demonstrating how data abstraction could be used to make software easier to construct, modify and maintain. Many of these ideas were derived from her experience at MIT in building the VENUS operating system, a small timesharing system that dramatically lowers the cost of providing computing and makes it more interactive.

 

In another contribution, Liskov designed CLU, an object-oriented programming language incorporating clusters to provide coherent, systematic handling of abstract data types. She and her colleagues at MIT subsequently developed efficient CLU compiler implementations on several different machines, an important step in demonstrating the practicality of her ideas. Data abstraction is now a generally accepted fundamental method of software engineering that focuses on data rather than processes.

 

Building on CLU concepts, Liskov followed with Argus, a distributed programming language. Its novel features led to further developments in distributed system design that could scale to systems connected by a network. This achievement laid the groundwork for modern search engines, which are used by thousands of programmers and hundreds of millions of users every day and which face the challenges of concurrent operation, failure and continually growing scale.

 

Her most recent research focuses on techniques that enable a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of some of its components. Her work on practical Byzantine fault tolerance demonstrated that there were more efficient ways of dealing with arbitrary (Byzantine) failures than had been previously known. Her insights have helped build robust, fault-tolerant distributed systems that are resistant to errors and hacking. This research is likely to change the way distributed system designers think about providing reliable service on today's modern, vulnerable Internet.

 

On the occasion of her winning the Turing Award, MIT Institute Professor Barbara Liskov discussed her role in shaping in the past, present and future of computer science.

 

Q: When you began your career in computer science, it was still a relatively young field. How have you seen this discipline evolve over time -- at MIT and elsewhere?

 

A: The change has been tremendous. When I started, most of the field was unexplored and there were obvious problems everywhere -- lots of low-hanging fruit, but also very fundamental issues that were poorly understood and very confusing. Today the field is on a very sound foundation. There are still many problems to work on, but now this work happens in the context of all that has gone before. When I started, this context was missing, so you just struck out on your own.

 

Q: Looking back at your career, what is the single accomplishment of which you are most proud?

 

A: Probably the development of the concept of data abstraction and the CLU programming language. This work was done at MIT in the 1970s.

 

Q: Where do you plan to focus your research going forward?

 

A: Today I am working primarily on distributed systems -- systems that run on many computers connected by a network like the Internet. My focus recently has been on the security of online storage. I believe that more and more users will store their information online, but the storage they use needs to be implemented so that they don't lose their information, their information is available when they need it, and they can be confident that their confidential information will not be leaked.

 

Q: As the first woman to earn a PhD in computer science, what advice would you give to other women who are considering going into this field?

 

A: I have found computer science to be a wonderful field to work in. I think the main reason is that the kind of thinking and problem-solving it requires matches my abilities. I believe that finding work to do that you like and are good at is the most important way to find a satisfying career. Young women (and young men) who find that computer science is a match for them should pursue it. There is lots of interesting work remaining to be done.

 

Q: When you began studying computer science at Stanford, computers were big mainframes and the Internet was still in the distant future. Today, computers fit in the palm of our hands -- many are much smaller -- and the Internet is ubiquitous. Given that you have watched these transformations over the last five decades from a front-row seat, what do you think the next half-century will hold?

 

A: I don't have a crystal ball! It seems obvious that computers and the Internet will continue to be very important to individuals, companies and society. But I don't know the exact form this will take.

Copyright © 2006 CMP Media LLC
 
Secretary of State Clinton on International Women's Day 2009 PDF Print E-mail
International Women's Day
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
March 8, 2009


On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2009, I am proud to honor women around the world who are blazing trails and surmounting obstacles in pursuit of equality and opportunity. Although you may not know their names or recognize their faces, these women advocates are hard at work in every country and on every continent, seeking to fulfill their right to participate fully in the political, economic and cultural lives of their societies. Often working against great odds and at great personal sacrifice, they are a key to global progress in this new century and deserve our admiration and support.

Put simply, we have much less hope of addressing the complex challenges we face in this new century without the full participation of women. Whether the economic crisis, the spread of terrorism, regional conflicts that threaten families and communities, and climate change and the dangers it presents to the world’s health and security, we will not solve these challenges through half measures. Yet too often, on these issues and many more, half the world is left behind.

This is not simply a matter of emotion or altruism. A growing body of research tells us that supporting women is a high-yield investment, resulting in stronger economies, more vibrant civil societies, healthier communities, and greater peace and stability. But even so, no nation in the world has yet achieved full equality for women.

Women still comprise the majority of the world’s poor, unfed, and unschooled. Hundreds of thousands of women die in childbirth every year. They are subjected to rape as a tactic of war and exploited by traffickers globally in a billion dollar criminal business. Laws are still on the books denying women the right to own property, access credit, or make their own choices within their marriage. And honor killings, maiming, female genital mutilation, and other violent and degrading practices that target women are tolerated in too many places today.
Like all people, women deserve to live free from violence and fear. To create peaceful, thriving communities, women must be equal partners. That means making key resources available to women as well as men, including the chance to work for fair wages and have access to credit; to vote, petition their governments and run for office; to know they can get healthcare when they need it, including family planning; and to send their children to school—their sons and their daughters.

Women also have a crucial role to play in establishing peace worldwide. In regions torn apart by war, it is often the women who find ways to reach across differences and discover common ground as mothers, caretakers, and grassroots advocates. One need only look to Northern Ireland, Rwanda, the Balkans, and parts of Central America to see the impact of women working in their communities to bridge divides in areas of sectarian conflict.

This week, as we celebrate the accomplishments and the untapped potential of women around the world, we must remind ourselves that ensuring the rights of women and girls is not only a matter of justice. It is a matter of enhancing global peace, progress, and prosperity for generations to come.
When women are afforded their basic rights, they flourish. And so do their children, families, communities, and nations.
# # #
 
First woman licensed as sea captain in North America dies PDF Print E-mail

Molly Kool, 93, a Pioneer of the Coastal Waters, Dies

Published: March 2, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/world/americas/03kool.html

Molly Kool, who in the 1930s and ’40s plied the lashing waters of the Bay of Fundy as the first woman in North America to be a licensed ship’s captain, died on Wednesday at her home in Bangor, Maine, two days after her 93rd birthday.

Molly Kool in 1939. She qualified as a captain at age 23.

The death was confirmed by Ken Kelly, a longtime friend.

A native of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, Ms. Kool was known familiarly throughout her life as Captain Molly. She qualified as a captain at age 23, and she spent the next five years in command of the Jean K, her father’s 70-foot engine- and sail-driven scow. In 2006, she was officially recognized by the Canadian government as the first woman to hold captain’s papers.

Hauling cargo up and down the Bay of Fundy and as far afield as Boston, Ms. Kool faced rain and fog, fire and ice, and the violent tides for which the bay is known. She also earned the disbelief, disdain and, eventually, respect of her rough-hewn male colleagues.

[Continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/world/americas/03kool.html]
 
"'Normal' would be having a Supreme Court on which four or five justices are women. And if this sounds like a fantasy, it is only a measure of just how abnormal the high court's makeup is now. " PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 11:10
February 10, 2009

Change Happens When Women Lead

By Marie Cocco

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's renewed struggle with cancer is both a demonstration of courage and a dismaying reminder that she represents a quota of one.

Ginsburg, who has pancreatic cancer, says she intends to resume her duties on the high court before the end of February, a quick return after surgery and harrowing treatment for a disease that is difficult to overcome. That is the courageous part.

The cheerless truth is that Ginsburg's ill health brings to mind her unique position. She is the only female justice, and has been since Sandra Day O'Connor left the court in 2006.

Certainly if Ginsburg's health fails and she is forced to retire, President Barack Obama would be under intense pressure to appoint another woman to fill her slot. With women voters providing Obama's margin of victory in last year's election, there is little doubt that he would do so.

But what then? Would a second vacancy automatically go to a man?

That is how it usually works. This use of women as tokens must now be reversed.

Justice Clarence Thomas is the sole African-American sitting on the high court, and the only member of any racial minority group. All ethnic groups legitimately aspire to greater representation. But why set up a zero-sum game in which the advancement of one means the other must wait?

Women -- of all ethnic backgrounds -- are not a minority. We are a majority of the population and a majority of the electorate. Women earn about half the law degrees awarded each year, and comprise well over half of those earning bachelor's and master's degrees. Still, we are treated as a cranky interest group to be placated, and rarely given our rightful place in leadership.

But when women lead, something extraordinary happens: Suddenly the voice of more than half the population can be heard.

This was the voice that called out almost immediately after President Ronald Reagan appointed O'Connor as the first woman justice in 1981. Though she was appointed by the icon of the contemporary conservative movement -- and is best known as a centrist, swing vote on the high court -- O'Connor's most consistent votes were those she cast in favor of equal treatment for women. Her vision became apparent quickly, when she wrote the majority opinion in a 1982 case involving an admissions policy at the University of Mississippi nursing school, which favored women over men. O'Connor attacked not just the illegality of the policy but its pernicious message. The admissions rule, she wrote, "tends to perpetuate the stereotyped view of nursing as an exclusively woman's job" and so "lends credibility to the old view that women, not men, should become nurses, and makes the assumption that nursing is a field for women a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Ginsburg, in a stinging dissent to the court's 2007 decision toughening the rules governing when a woman can sue for sex discrimination in the workplace, took her colleagues to task for overlooking "common characteristics of pay discrimination" -- that is, year-to-year pay decisions that add up to long-term discrimination are often hidden from the employee. They might not be apparent or challenged immediately in court, Ginsburg wrote, "particularly when the employee, trying to succeed in a nontraditional environment, is averse to making waves." The ruling in this case, involving tire company supervisor Lilly Ledbetter, was just overturned in legislation that resets the rules to what they were before the Supreme Court decision.

O'Connor, a Republican and a Westerner, and Ginsburg, a Democrat and the personification of the Eastern intellectual, brought few similarities in personal background to the Supreme Court. Yet they shared an outlook as women who suffered blatant discrimination early in their careers. Both understood intuitively that women experience life differently than do men, and often saw the legal issues before them through that lens.

In 2007, Ginsburg told USA Today that she was "lonely" without O'Connor at the court, and worried about the symbolism implicit in having a sole woman justice. The message, she said, is that having a woman on the Supreme Court is a "one-at-a-time curiosity, not the normal thing."

"Normal" would be having a Supreme Court on which four or five justices are women. And if this sounds like a fantasy, it is only a measure of just how abnormal the high court's makeup is now.

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Page Printed from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/02/change_happens_when_women_lead.html at February 17, 2009 - 02:17:08 AM PST
 
Wild Women And Books: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings, & Prolific Pens from Aphra Ben to Zora Neale Hurston and From Anne Rice To the Ya-Ya Sisterhood PDF Print E-mail

Wild Women And Books: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings, & Prolific Pens from Aphra Ben to Zora Neale Hurston and From Anne Rice To the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

By Brenda Knight
Edition: 2, illustrated
Published by Conari, 2006
ISBN 1573242713, 9781573242714
288 pages

Physical copy owned by 51 Percent
 
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