Wendy Hall
Professor of Computer Science
School of Electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton, UK

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Hall received a BSc with honors (Mathematics, University of Southampton, 1974), PhD (Pure Mathematics, University of Southampton, 1977) and MSc (Computer Science, City University, London, 1986). Lecturer, Oxford Polytechnic (1977), Lecturer, LSU College of Higher Education (1978), Lecturer (1984), Senior Lecturer (1990), Professor (1994) Computer Science, Head of School (2002-2007), University of Southampton.

Dr Hall’s team developed the well-known Microcosm open hypermedia system, which was patented and spun-off into a commercial company (1994), and won an ITEA award (1995) and a BCS IT award (1996). Current research interests include web science, the semantic web, and digital libraries. Dr Hall has published over 350 journal and conference papers, which can be found at http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~wh/

One of the founding directors of the Web Science Research Initiative, a joint venture between the University of Southampton and MIT, launched in 2006. MIT Research Affiliate (2007-present).

CBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours list (2000), EPSRC Senior Research Fellow (1996–2002), member of UK Technology Foresight Panel (1995–98), member of the council of EPSRC (1997–2002), member of executive of UK Computing Research Committee (2002–present), member of UK Prime Minister’s Council of Science and Technology (2004-present), member of Scientific Council of the European Research Council (2005–present), chair of UKCRC Grand Challenges Committee (2005–present). Honorary DSc (Oxford Brookes University, 2002, University of Glamorgan, 2005, University of Pretoria, 2007), Honorary Fellow University of Cardiff (2004). Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership (2006).

ACM Pubs Board (1999–2005), programme co-chair ACM Multimedia’96, conference co-chair ACM Hypertext’97, conference co-chair ACM Multimedia’98, chair WWW2006, executive committee SIGMULTIMEDIA (1998–2003), member SIGWEB and SIGMM.

President BCS (2003–2004), Senior VP Royal Academy of Engineering (2005-present), FREng (2000), FBCS (1996), FIEE (1997), FCGI (2002), CEng (1990). VP Publications BCS (1998–2002), member of IW3C2 (1997–present), member of British Library Board (2007-present), member of several editorial boards and numerous programme committees, non-executive director of several companies.

STATEMENT

I am extremely honoured to have been asked to stand for election as President of the ACM. I have been a member of the ACM for most of my professional career, and I am an active member of SIGWEB and SIGMM. I served on the ACM Publications Board for six years and on ACM Council for 2 years before being elected ACM Vice President in 2006.

ACM is increasingly well established as the premiere computing society. Membership has grown steadily over the past five years, making ACM the largest computing society in the world. Our Digital Library is regarded as the best in computing. We are publishing more journals and running more conferences than at any point in ACM’s history, and taking the lead on many important policy issues in the computing field. But to reach our full potential, there are three things I believe the ACM must do: 1) really grasp what it means to be an international society; 2) take the lead in terms of increasing diversity in all aspects of our field; and 3) provide something new and unique for ACM practitioners.

While ACM’s impact outside the US is increasing, I believe we must do more in order to become the leading computing society worldwide.  We need to develop further our initiatives in India and China, rethink our relationship with Europe and explore how to be more relevant in South America and other parts of the world.  As a European, a Past President of the BCS and a researcher with many international connections, I believe I have the background, experience, and perspective to help lead ACM in these important efforts.

I have actively worked throughout my career to increase diversity in computing. I chair the BCS Women’s Forum and the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Committee, and have been on several government working parties in this area. As ACM Vice President I have taken an active role in the development of ACM-W to give it a greater voice in the organisation, and I am co-chairing the Presidential Committee on Gender Diversity. I am very keen to see this work come to fruition and to establish diversity as a fundamental part of the ACM agenda.

I am committed to continue the initiative ACM started three years ago to better serve the practitioners community. Queue magazine is a part of this, as is the new Professions Board. The successful future of the ACM depends on its ability to support the academic and research communities around the world, to reach communities typically underrepresented in computing, and to do something unique for practitioners both within and outside ACM.

The revitalization of CACM is a crucial element in the process of increasing our international presence and expanding the service we provide to all of our communities.  It is critical that the next President works to ensure the success of this initiative. I believe my track record in academic publishing, my leadership experience within the UK and Europe, and my knowledge of, and experience in, ACM can benefit both ACM and the community.