Friday, March 02, 2007

Women's History Month & The Turing Award

Happy Women's History Month! As we celebrate a month of incredible women who are making achievements, I'd like to direct your attention to an interview with the first winner of the A.M. Turing award-- the highest for computer science.

Alan Turing was a mathematician of renown during WWII as a cryptanalyst. He was instrumental in breaking some of the most difficult codes created by the Germans. My first introduction to him was through the respectful irreverence of Neal Stephenson in his book Cryptonomicon. As Turing only lived to be in his forties, it is only imaginable to wonder what this man might have created had he lived long.

The winner is a first female for said award: Ms. Frances Allen. There's a nice interview with Ms. Allen, the majority of which discusses her work as a female in what is still or what is still perceived as a male dominated field. Having been in computer science since 1957, she has a wealth of perspective to draw upon and gives an interesting view on the current state of affairs and how they have changed over the years.

Congratulations on your work, Ms. Allen, and on being a strong contributor to the field of mathematics and computer science!

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