Women in Science

The retired IBM scientist Frances E. Allen whose pioneering work in the field of compilers will receive the Association for Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award. Allen is the first woman to receive this honor -- the highest honor in computer science.

Allen worked for IBM in the late 1950s where she taught a new language, FORTRAN, to IBM scientists.

"There is an image about our profession that doesn't appeal to women, which is a shame because women in our field are just fabulous. They're great researchers. They're great leaders. There just aren't enough of them. This has been an issue for many years." -- ACM CEO John White.

Blogger's note: Young women, for many reasons, are turned away from science at the middle school (junior high school) level. To combat this trend I suggest reading 4000 Years of Women in Science and doing what you can to encourage more women into the sciences. It is our culture that is turning these great talents away, not their desire nor their abilities.