Barbara Simons

Country:	USA
Email:	simons [at] acm.org
Website:	[USACM.ACM.org USACM.ACM.org]
Facebook:	[Profile Barbara Simons]

Barbara Simons was president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) during the period of July 1998 - June 2000 as well as the secretary of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents in 1999. Simons co-chaired the ACM study of statewide databases of registered voters.

Barbara Simons was a runner-up in the first election for the North America seat on ICANN's Board.

Education

She presented her doctoral thesis in computer science from The University of California at Berkeley in 1981. In her thesis Barbara Simons managed to solve a major open problem related to the scheduling theory.

Professional achievements

In 1980, she became part of the research staff at IBM's San Jose Research Center which then changed into Almaden). In 1992, she started working within the organization IBM at the Applications Development Technology Institute as a senior programmer as well as a senior technology adviser for IBM Global Services.

She was specialized and very well prepared in the following areas: compiler optimization, algorithm analysis and design, and scheduling theory. She holds several patents and become a writer and co-written for various technical papers.

Awards and recognition

The main awards she received are listed below:

• 1992: Barbara Simons received the Norbert Wiener Award for Professional and Social Responsibility in Computing
• 1993: Became a fellow of ACM
• 1995: She is included among the 100 top women in computing
• 2002: She was awarded Distinguished Alumnus Award in Computer Science and Engineering from U.C. Berkeley Department of Computer Science

Likewise, due to her great work and achievements at IBM, Barbara Simons received a IBM Research Division Award for clock synchronization. She holds several patents and has written or co-written a book and numerous technical papers. Recently, Simons has been teaching technology policy at Stanford University.

In addition, along her career Barbara Simons received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the Berkeley computer science department, the Norbert Wiener Award from CPSR and the Outstanding Contribution Award from ACM and the Pioneer Award from EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). She was included in the top 100 women in computing.

Project developed

Barbara Simons got involved in the following projects:

• Was one of the co-founders of Reentry Program for Women and Minorities in the Computer Science Department at U.C. Berkeley;
• She is on the Boards of the Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC);
• She is in the Berkeley Foundation for Opportunities in Information Technology (BFOIT);
• She is on the Board of Directors of VerifiedVoting.org;
• She is on the Board of Directors at U.C. Berkeley Engineering Fund, the Math/Science Network, Public Knowledge, respectively the Electronic Privacy Information Center;
• She is the Advisory Boards at Oxford Internet Institute and Zeroknowledge and PIR's;

Electronic Frontier Foundation