Frances E. Allen
| Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 4, 1932 Peru, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | IBM, New York University |
| Alma mater |
State University of New York at Albany, |
| Known for | High-performance computing, parallel computing, compiler organization, optimization |
| Notable awards |
Turing Award (2006) Computer Pioneer Award (2004) Computer History Museum Fellow (2000) |
State University of New York at Albany,
Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen (born August 4, 1932, Peru, New York, United States) is an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Her achievements include work in compilers, code optimization, and parallelization. She also had a role in intelligence work on programming languages and security codes for the National Security Agency.
Allen was the first female IBM Fellow and in 2006 became the first woman to win the Turing Award.
Allen grew up on a farm in Peru, New York and graduated from The New York State College for Teachers (now State University of New York at Albany, SUNY) with a B.Sc. degree in mathematics in 1954. She earned an M.Sc. degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1957 and began teaching school in Peru, New York. Deeply in debt, she joined the Thomas J. Watson Research Center at IBM on July 15, 1957, where taught incoming employees the basics of FORTRAN. Although she planned to stay only until her school loans were paid that were ordered for the Los Alamos National Lab. Although she only intended to stay at IBM for a few years, she ended up staying for her entire 45-year career.
To quote her A.M. Turing Award citation:
...
Wikipedia