A Turing Award, Yeah!

The winner of the 2008 Turing Award was announced today. Alan Turing is the father of the modern Computer Science, and the Turing Award is the most prestigious Computer Science award in existence, on par with Nobel prizes for other disciplines.

And this year's winner is:

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has named Barbara Liskov of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the winner of the 2008 ACM A.M. Turing Award. The award cites Liskov for her foundational innovations to designing and building the pervasive computer system designs that power daily life. Her achievements in programming language design have made software more reliable and easier to maintain. They are now the basis of every important programming language since 1975, including Ada, C++, Java, and C#. The Turing Award, widely considered the "Nobel Prize in Computing," is named for the British mathematician Alan M. Turing. The award carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support provided by Intel Corporation and Google Inc.

The first U.S. woman to be awarded a Ph.D. from a computer science department (in 1968 from Stanford University), Liskov revolutionized the programming field with groundbreaking research that underpins virtually every modern computer application for both consumers and businesses. Her contributions have led to fundamental changes in building the computer software programs that form the infrastructure of our information-based society. Her legacy has made software systems more accessible, reliable, and secure 24/7. (cont.)

This is the second time ever the prize has gone to a woman! Having observed the kind of spotlight that was cast on women in computing when Fran Allen won the award just 2 years ago, I am very excited about this new development.

Congratulations Dr.Barbara Liskov! Looking forward to your acceptance speech and many keynote speeches to come!