Name: Lorrie Faith Cranor
Title: Principal Technical Staff Member
Company: AT&T Labs-Research
Website: http://lorrie.cranor.org
How I arrived at my present job (academic and other influences): I got my undergraduate degree in Engineering and Public Policy (with minors in fine arts and computer science) from Washington University in St. Louis. I graduated in three years and wasn't too sure what I wanted to do after that, so I decided to stay at Washington U. for a master's degree in Technology and Human Affairs. I was particularly interested in computer and telecommunications policy, so I took a lot of computer science courses. After I finished my master's degree I decided to get a doctorate in Engineering and Policy. But after I started in the doctoral program, my department cut the funding it had available for graduate students. Because I had been taking a lot of courses from the computer science department, the chair of that department suggested that I get a master's degree in computer science and work as a teaching assistant for the computer science department. By the time I left Washington University in 1996 I had earned four degrees!
I thought I would become a professor after I graduated, so I sent my resume to about 80 universities. But then I saw a message on an electronic mailing list about a new public policy research group that was being formed at AT&T. I sent them my resume and they called me for an interview. Until I went for that interview, I didn't ever seriously consider working for a company. But I discovered that working in an industrial research lab is very similar to working in an academic environment, except there are no classes to teach and you don't have to apply for grant funding! I think the main advantages to the academic environment are the opportunities to work with students and the ability to do consulting work or even start your own company. In industry we hire a lot of summer students, but it's not the same as being at a university. We also are quite limited in the type of consulting work we can do, and most of the intellectual property we generate is owned by the company. So there are tradeoffs, but I'm pretty happy with my decision to go into industry.
How I organize my day: Working at a research lab, I have a lot of flexibility about how I organize my day. I usually have a conference call or a meeting or seminar that I have to plan my day around. Other than that, I usually spend some time answering email and phone calls. I try to reserve some time for doing all the many "little things" that seem to end up on my to-do list, as well as some time for uninterrupted intensive work on one particular project. But often the little things end up taking up my entire day.
Amount of time spent working daily (at home and office): I usually work 8-10 hours per day. I currently do most of my work at the office, although I have the option of working from home, and I take advantage of that from time to time. I also sometimes do some work at home in the evenings and on weekends.
What I do to get myself thinking creatively: Relax or take a walk.
My problem-solving strategy: I don't have a single problem-solving strategy -- it depends on the problem. But it generally helps to break problems down into small pieces, think about what I already know about each part of the problem and what I can do to get more information about the parts I don't know much about, and tackle it one step at a time. I keep a research notebook and take lots of notes as I try to solve problems.
What I do to relieve stress: I have a number of hobbies including designing and creating quilts and playing tenor saxophone in a community band. I also try to take a long walk or exercise in the gym at least 2 or 3 times each week.
My hero, mentor, or person I most admire and why: I don't have a single hero or mentor. There are a lot of people I admire for their ability to juggle their careers and personal lives successfully and get what they want out of life.
What I do to mentor those who work for me: I like to work with summer students. I try to spend a lot of time talking with them and answering their questions, without telling them exactly what they should do.
How a negative event changed my life in a positive way: When I had to find a new source of funding in graduate school and ended up pursuing a masters degree in computer science in order to get paid as a TA -- as it turns out I think having a degree in CS in addition to my other degrees has been very valuable.
One event or decision in my life I wish I could go back and change: While I've certainly made lots of mistakes, I can't think of anything major I would do differently -- overall I'm pretty happy with my life and the way things have turned out so far.
What values are the most important to me and what I value in others: I value honesty, reliability, responsibility, and respect for others.
What inspires, motivates, or gets me excited about my job on a daily basis: The opportunity to try new things, learn about new areas, and explore new areas. In addition, I'm currently doing a lot of work related to online privacy, and I feel the work I'm doing has the potential to really help people.
Biography: Dr. Lorrie Faith Cranor is a Principal Technical Staff Member in the Secure Systems Research Department at AT&T Labs-Research Shannon Laboratory in Florham Park, New Jersey. She is chair of the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) Specification Working Group at the World Wide Web Consortium. Her research has focused on a variety of areas where technology and policy issues interact, including online privacy, electronic voting, and spam.
Dr. Cranor received her doctorate degree in Engineering & Policy from Washington University in St. Louis in 1996. While in graduate school she helped found Crossroads, the ACM Student Magazine, and served as the publication's editor-in-chief for two years.
Dr. Cranor was chair of the Tenth Conference on Computers Freedom and Privacy (CFP2000). She is the program committee chair for the 29th Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC 2001). She is frequently invited to speak about online privacy, and in 1998 Internet Magazine named her an unsung hero of the Internet for her work on P3P. In the Spring of 2000 she served on the Federal Trade Commission Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security. She also serves on the editorial boards of the journals ACM Transactions on Internet Technology and The Information Society.
Dr. Cranor has been studying electronic voting systems since 1994. She maintains the e-lection electronic voting mailing list and in 2000 served on the executive committee of a National Science Foundation sponsored Internet voting taskforce.
Dr. Cranor was also a member of the project team that developed the Publius censorship-resistant publishing system. In February 2001, the Publius team was honored by Index on Censorship magazine for the "Best Circumvention of Censorship."
Dr. Cranor plays the tenor saxophone in the Chatham Community Band. She also spends much of her free time designing and creating quilts.
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Location: www.acm.org/crossroads/dayinlife/bios/lorrie_faith_cranor.html