Name: Peter G. Neumann
Title: Principal Scientist, Computer Science Lab
Company: SRI International
Contact Info: Neumann@CSL.sri.com
http://www.csl.sri.com/neumann/
How I arrived at my present job (academic and other influences): Math major as an undergraduate, summer job for the Navy in 1953 programming, bachelor's thesis on elliptic integrals with nomographic tables generated on the Harvard Mark IV, doctoral and subsequent Bell Labs research on survivable systems (self-resynchronizing, fault tolerance, error correcting, etc.), extensive involvement in the development of Multics, one thing led to another.
How I organize my day: Demand-driven responses multiplexed with ongoing project commitments
Amount of time spent working daily (at home and office): I've backed off to only a 50-hour week in recent years.
What I do to get myself thinking creatively: Music, tai chi, relaxed concentration
My problem-solving strategy: Try to look more generally at difficult problems to see what commonalities exist with related problems.
What I do to relieve stress: Music, tai chi, sports, reading
My hero, mentor, or person I most admire and why: David Huffman (who died on October 7, 1999), and Fernando Corbato' (Corby), both inspirational friends and colleagues for over 35 years; Einstein
What I do to mentor those who work for me: I care about them. I also have been or am on four doctoral committees in the past few years, despite working for a not-for-profit research institute. The Risks Forum is also a mentoring opportunity, because I interact with thousands of people by e-mail.
How a negative event changed my life in a positive way: Numerous deaths of family and friends have inspired a rededication to the living.
One event or decision in my life I wish I could go back and change: Actually, none that I could have had any significant control over.
What values are the most important to me and what I value in others: Personal integrity, altruism
What inspires, motivates, or gets me excited about my job on a daily basis: Intellectual challenges, opportunities to grow and learn, addressing complex problems.
Biography: AB, SM, and PhD degrees from Harvard (1954, 1955, 1961), Dr rerum naturarum from the Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt, Germany (1960, two-year Fulbright). Taught at Darmstadt (1960), Stanford (1964), UC Berkeley (1970-71), University of Maryland (1999). Participant in the Multics development. Bell Labs (1960s) and SRI (since 1971) work involved development of critical systems. Author of many articles, reports, and Computer-Related Risks (Addison-Wesley, 1995 although still relevant!). See http://www.CSL.sri.com/neumann/ for Senate and House testimonies, some papers, references, etc. Currently on the U.S. General Accounting Office Executive Council on Information Management and Technology. Founding editor of ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (1976-1993); Chairman of the ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy (since 1985); and a Contributing Editor for CACM (since 1990) for the monthly `Inside Risks' column. Creator and still moderator of the ACM Risks Forum (1985- ...). Fellow of the ACM, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (and Computer Society member). ACM Outstanding Contribution Award (1992), first SRI Exceptional Performance Award for Leadership in Community Service (1992), Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (1996), ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Service Award (1997), and the CPSR Norbert Wiener Award (1997), for ``deep commitment to the socially responsible use of computing technology.''
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Location: www.acm.org/crossroads/dayinlife/bios/peter_neumann.html