IBM Fellow Emerita Frances Allen Responsible for Innovations to High Speed
Computing; Work Inspired Generations of Computer Scientists
NEW YORK, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- ACM, the Association for Computing
Machinery, has named Frances E. Allen the recipient of the 2006 A.M. Turing
Award for contributions that fundamentally improved the performance of
computer programs in solving problems, and accelerated the use of high
performance computing. This award marks the first time that a woman has
received this honor. The Turing Award, first presented in 1966, and named
for British mathematician Alan M. Turing, is widely considered the "Nobel
Prize in Computing." It carries a $100,000 prize, with financial support
provided by Intel Corporation.
Allen, an IBM Fellow Emerita at the T.J. Watson Research Center, made
fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of program
optimization, which translates the users' problem-solving language
statements into more efficient sequences of computer instructions. Her
contributions also greatly extended earlier work in automatic program
parallelization, which enables programs to use multiple processors
simultaneously in order to obtain faster results. These techniques have
made it possible to achieve high performance from computers while
programming them in languages suitable to applications. They have
contributed to advances in the use of high performance computers for
solving problems such as weather forecasting, DNA matching, and national
security functions.
"Fran Allen's work has led to remarkable advances in compiler design
and machine architecture that are at the foundation of modern
high-performance computing," said Ruzena Bajcsy, Chair of ACM's Turing
Award Committee, and professor of Electrical and Engineering and Computer
Science at the University of California, Berkeley. "Her contributions have
spanned most of the history of computer science, and have made possible
computing techniques that we rely on today in business and technology. It
is interesting to note Allen's role in highly secret intelligence work on
security codes for the organization now known as the National Security
Agency, since it was Alan Turing, the namesake of this prestigious award,
who devised techniques to help break the German codes during World War II,"
said Bajcsy, who is Emeritus Director of the Center for Information
Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at Berkeley.
"Fran Allen's work on the Parallel TRANslation (PTRAN) project built on
her earlier work on program optimization," said Andrew A. Chien, Intel's
Vice President of Research. "Over the years, this foundation has enabled
the advance of programming-productivity based on the co-evolution of higher
level programming language and optimization technologies. It is
particularly timely that this award comes as parallel computing is becoming
an element of the most pervasive of computing platforms - laptop and
desktop personal computers - and the opportunities for new and important
contributions to parallel programming and efficient implementation abound,"
he said.
In 1989, Allen was the first woman to be named an IBM Fellow. In 2000,
IBM created the Frances E. Allen Women in Technology Mentoring Award,
naming her as its first recipient. As her Turing Award citation notes, she
has been an inspirational mentor to younger researchers and a leader within
the computing community. She is an Advisory Council Member of the Anita
Borg Institute for Women and Technology, whose goal is to increase the
participation of women in all aspects of technology. She also received the
first Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership, which was presented at
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 2004.
Background
Allen joined IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in 1957, to teach
FORTRAN, a revolutionary high-level programming language, to the scientists
at IBM. FORTRAN allowed scientists and engineers to write programs that
closely resembled the mathematical formulas they normally relied on. Allen
recognized the opportunity to address a grand challenge of high performance
computers -- delivering the performance potential of computers to solve
problems without exposing the underlying computer infrastructure.
Allen's 1966 paper, Program Optimization, laid the conceptual basis for
systematic analysis and transformation of computer programs. Her 1970
papers, Control Flow Analysis and A Basis for Program Optimization
established "intervals" as the context for efficient and effective data
flow analysis and optimization. Much of her early work was done in
collaboration with John Cocke, an IBM computer scientist who died in 2002.
Her 1971 paper with John Cocke, A Catalog of Optimizing Transformations,
provided the first description and systematization of optimizing
transformations. She developed and implemented her methods as part of
building compilers for the IBM STRETCH- HARVEST and the experimental
Advanced Computing System. This work established the feasibility of modern
machine- and language-independent optimizers.
In 1984, she formed and led IBM's PTRAN project to address the emerging
challenge of parallel computers, which simultaneously executes related
tasks for faster results. This project led to many advances including the
concept of the program dependence graph, the primary structuring method
used by most parallelizing compilers today.
In 1995, Allen was president of the IBM Academy of Technology, a global
organization of IBM technical leaders charged with providing technical
advice to the company. Before she retired in 2002, she was a Senior
Technical Advisor to the Research Vice President for Solutions,
Applications and Services. She is a member of the National Academy of
Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American
Philosophical Society. She was named a Fellow of ACM in 1994.
Allen has been a member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications
Board (CSTB), the Computing Research Association (CRA) Board, and the
National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and
Engineering (CISE) Advisory Board. Her recent professional activities for
ACM include membership on ACM's Job Migration Task Force, which produced
the widely reported "Globalization and Offshoring of Software" study
http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport/pdf/fullfinal.pdf. In addition, she was
active in the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages
(SIGPLAN), and has served on the editorial boards of several ACM journals.
Among Allen's teaching and lecturing roles were visiting professor at
New York University from 1970-73; consulting professor at Stanford
University; the Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer and Mackay Lecturer at
the University of California, Berkeley in 1988-89; and Regents Lecturer at
the University of California, San Diego in 1997. She was awarded Honorary
Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Alberta in 1991; from Pace
University in 1999; and from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
in 2004. She graduated from Albany State Teachers College -- now the State
University of New York at Albany -- with a degree in mathematics. She
received a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan.
ACM will present the Turing Award at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on
June 9, 2007, in San Diego, CA.
About the ACM A.M. Turing Award
The ACM A.M. Turing Award was named for Alan M. Turing, the British
mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of
computing, and who was a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis of the
German Enigma cipher during World War II. Since its inception, the Turing
Award has honored the computer scientists and engineers who created the
systems and underlying theoretical foundations that have propelled the
information technology industry. For additional information, click on
http://www.acm.org/awards/taward.html.
About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is an
educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators,
researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and
address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's collective
voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and
recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth
of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career
development, and professional networking.
SOURCE Association for Computing Machinery
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