|
|
Outstanding Contribution Award
CONTACT:
IMMEDIATE
Former President Made ACM's Voice Heard On Computer Policy Issues New York, January 30, 2002...Dr. Barbara Simons, who founded ACM's public policy committee (US ACM) to provide advice and analysis to legislators and policy makers, has been given the 2001 Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award. The committee, which she currently co-chairs, provides expertise on a variety of technology policy issues including computer security, privacy and intellectual property, and funding for basic science and computing research. USACM members, including Dr. Simons, have testified before Congressional hearings and often respond to requests for information from US government agencies and departments. In leading the effort to create ACM's public policy committee in 1993, Dr. Simons recruited scientists and technologists as well as lawyers, law professors and others in the academic world who sought to make a contribution to technology policy. In 1987, Dr. Simons chaired ACM's Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights, which spoke out on issues relating to the persecution of computing scientists outside the U.S. She served as president of ACM from 1998-2000, and as the organization's secretary from 1990-92. A former member of the Research Division of IBM, Dr. Simons was awarded the Norbert Wiener Award for Professional and Social Responsibility in Computing in 1992. She was selected by Open Computing as one of the "Top 100 Women in Computing" in 1994, and by c/net as one of its 26 Internet "Visionaries" in 1995. She received the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1998. Dr. Simons is a Fellow of ACM and the American Association for the advancement of Science (AAAS). She is on the Board of Directors of the University of California Berkeley Engineering Fund, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Dr. Simons is a co-founder of the UC Berkeley Computer Science Department Reentry Program for Women and Minorities. She served on the President's Export Council's Subcommittee on Encryption, and on the Information Technology-Sector of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion. A consulting professor at Stanford University, Dr. Simons received a Ph.D. in computer science from UC Berkeley. She received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from UC Berkeley's computer science department in 2000, holds several patents, and has authored numerous technical papers. ACM will present the Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award to Dr. Simons at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on April 27, 2002, at the University of Toronto. About ACM The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership by delivering cutting edge technical information and transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM hosts the computing industry's leading Portal to Computing Literature. With its world-class journals and magazines, dynamic special interest groups, numerous conferences, workshops and electronic forums, ACM is a primary resource to the information technology field. For additional information about ACM and the ACM Portal, see www.acm.org.
|
