Frances E. Allen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the early American nun, see Frances Allen (nun).

Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen (born August 4, 1932) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers

Compiler optimization

Compiler optimization is the process of tuning the output of a compiler to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. The most common requirement is to minimize the time taken to execute a program; a less common one is to minimize the amount of memory occupied...

. Her achievements include seminal work in compiler

Compiler

A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...

s, code optimization

Optimization (computer science)

In computer science, program optimization or software optimization is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources...

, and parallelization

Parallel computing

Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...

. She also had a role in intelligence work on programming languages and security codes for the National Security Agency

National Security Agency

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...

.

Allen was the first female IBM Fellow

IBM Fellow

An IBM Fellow is an appointed position at IBM made by IBM’s CEO. Typically only 4 to 9 IBM Fellows are appointed each year, at the annual Corporate Technical Recognition Event in May or June. It is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve.The IBM Fellows program...

and in 2006 became the first woman to win the Turing Award

Turing Award

The Turing Award, in full The ACM A.M. Turing Award, is an annual award given by the Association for Computing Machinery to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the...

Career

Allen grew up on a farm in upstate New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

and graduated from The New York State College for Teachers (now State University of New York at Albany) with a B.Sc.

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

degree in mathematics in 1954. She earned an M.Sc.

Master of Science

A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

in 1957 and began teaching school in Peru, New York

Peru, New York

Peru is a town in Clinton County in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 6,998 at the 2010 census. The town was named Peru because its mountainous nature suggested that country....

. Deeply in debt, she joined IBM on July 15, 1957 and planned to stay only until her school loans were paid, but ended up staying for her entire 45-year career.
Allen became the first female IBM Fellow

IBM Fellow

in 1989. In 2007 the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award was created in her honor.

Awards and honors

Allen is a fellow of the IEEE, the Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...

(ACM) and the Computer History Museum

Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...

. She is currently on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, the Computer Research Associates (CRA) board and National Science Foundation

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

's CISE Advisory Board. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering

National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created non-profit institution in the United States, that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...

and the American Philosophical Society

American Philosophical Society

The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...

. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

in 1994.

In 1997, Allen was inducted into the WITI Hall of Fame. She retired from IBM in 2002 and won the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award that year from the Association for Women in Computing

Women in computing

Global concerns about current and future roles of women in computing occupations gained more importance with the emerging information age. These concerns motivated public policy debates addressing gender equality as computer applications exerted increasing influence in society...

.

In 2007 Allen was recognized for her work in high performance computing when she received the A.M. Turing Award

Turing Award

for 2006. She became the first woman recipient in the forty year history of the award which is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

for computing and is given by the Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Computing Machinery

. She was awarded an honorary doctor in science degree at the winter commencement at SUNY University at Albany. In interviews following the award she hoped it would give more "opportunities for women in science, computing and engineering". In 2009 she was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from McGill university for "pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution". In her lecture presented to the ACM, Allen describes her work.

External links

Frances Allen via IBM Women in WITI Hall of Fame.
Frances Allen: 2000 Fellow Awards Recipient via Computer History Museum
Fran Allen on Compilers and Parallel Computing Systems Notes from her 2008 Organick Memorial Lecture

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