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Contact: Eric Mason,
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
ericm@anitaborg.org or 650.236.4079
www.anitaborg.org
Two Leaders in Their Fields Honored with
Anita Borg Awards
Inaugural Prizes for Technical Leadership and Social Impact
awarded to Fran Allen and Karen Banks
PALO ALTO , CA — Two leaders in technology are being honored as recipients of the first Anita Borg Awards at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference Awards Banquet on Thursday, October 7, 2004 in Chicago , IL . The Anita Borg Awards recognize significant and sustained contributions with one award recognizing Technical Leadership and the other Social Impact. Each winner receives a commemorative award and $10,000.
The Awards are named after Dr. Anita Borg who died in 2003. The Anita Borg Awards were established to recognize outstanding leaders who embrace her lasting vision to change the world for women and for technology. Anita founded the Systers online community in 1987, the Grace Hopper Celebration in Computing in 1994, the Institute for Women and Technology in 1997 to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology and to increase the positive impact of technology on the world’s women.
The Anita Borg Award for Social Impact Recipient is:
Karen Banks, Coordinator, APC Women’s Networking Support Program, London , England
(This award is underwritten by Microsoft)
The Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership Recipient is:
Dr. Fran Allen, IBM Fellow Emerita, IBM Corporation
(This award is underwritten by Dr. Greg Papadopoulos, in memory of Anita)
“At this critical time, the recipients of these first Anita Borg Awards offer us a reminder of the substantial influence technology has on our lives and the potential for technology to have a significant and positive role in shaping the future, said Dr. Telle Whitney, CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute. “This year’s winners embody the qualities, understanding and compassion essential for more positive future. In honoring them, we honor all those whose lives exemplify an individual’s capacity to excel while making a better future for all.”
The Anita Borg Awards are presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, a nationally recognized organization that provides platforms allowing women’s voices, ideas and spirits to influence technology. The Institute’s mission, to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology and to increase the positive impact of technology on the lives of the world’s women, is exemplified in the Anita Borg Award recipients. Microsoft underwrites the Anita Borg Award for Social Impact and Dr. Greg Papadopoulos, in memory of Anita, underwrites the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership. Both will be presented at the premier event for technical women in computing, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference 2004.
This year’s Anita Borg recipients are:
Anita Borg Award for Social Impact :
Underwritten by Microsoft —
Karen Banks
For nearly 15 years Karen Banks and the APC Women’s Networking Support Programme has worked successfully around the globe to bring the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs –eg. internet, radio, video, cell phones) to underserved women and communities as a tool for women’s empowerment, gender equality, social action and positive social change.
As the global Coordinator for APC Women’s Networking Support Program, Karen has pioneered the use of ICTs for the empowerment of women around the world. Together they have been at the forefront of the movement to ensure the great potential of ICTs for reducing poverty, overcoming women’s isolation, giving women a voice, improving governance and advancing gender equity.
“It is critical to involve women in technology access and adoption. In emerging economies, women give structure to the potential of technology to positively impact lives”, said Sarah Revi Sterling, Program Manager, University Relations, Microsoft Research. The Social Impact Award, underwritten by Microsoft, serves to recognize individuals who share in Anita Borg’s vision that technology can be beneficial in the lives of women, just as women benefit the tech industry by bringing their inherent values to their work.”
In Africa , the Network is involved in training women’s groups in content generation and dissemination, using ICTs to bringing women’s voices on HIV/AIDs, peace building and violence against women directly to the policy makers, decision makers and the mainstream. In the Asia Pacific region, the Network has conducted and coordinated regional and national Women’s Electronic Network Training (WENT) workshops, which started in 1999 and have become a model for similar women’s training in other regions.
Karen and her Network have worked with NGO’s, activists, and local ISPs to understand the needs of a particular region’s national IT policies and barriers to promoting universal access. In the Philippines , they have worked on intellectual property regimes, media control, and the struggle of communities to access frequency allocations for radios and audiovisual work. In Central and Eastern Europe Network members have been assessing the media and ICT need of women in a region often overlooked when it comes to public interest and donor funding. In Latin America the Network is engaged in work with local telecenters and public access centers to ensure women and men benefit equally in access to and use of public resources.
Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership :
Underwritten by Greg Papadopoulos in memory of Anita
Dr. Fran Allen
In the past 45 years of computing, computers have shrunk, networks have expanded and new computer languages have emerged -- and Dr. Fran Allen has watched it all firsthand. Following completion of her master's degree in Mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1957, she joined the IBM Research division to teach FORTRAN to other researchers. In 1989, Fran was the first woman named IBM Fellow - the company's highest technical honor.
Widely recognized for her founding work on the theory of program optimization and for leading the PTRAN (Parallel Translations) project, she is regarded as a pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers, which she explains as "translating the language a program is written in into a language appropriate for the hardware to best exploit the performance potential of that hardware." Allen's personal contribution to the field has been the development of underlying algorithms effective across many types of hardware and in diverse situations.
Fran Allen has motivated the next generation of business-technology leaders. Mentoring has always been important to Fran and she considered it an essential part of her daily routine throughout her career. When she first joined IBM Research, the practice of mentoring was not widespread outside the executive track. However, through formal and informal mentoring, Allen began seeking out new employees to guide them in their own personal success. IBM was so overcome with Allen's commitment to mentoring that they established an award in her name, as an effort to promote the careers of technical women in IBM who have demonstrated "exemplary commitment to mentoring technical women."
Dr. Allen has been an active member of the National Academy of Engineering, and she was elected president of the IBM Academy of Technology. Her enthusiasm and wisdom has inspired many young women to excel in the computer industry. Her many recognitions include induction into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and receiving the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) SIGPLAN's Programming Languages Achievement Award. In July 2002, after nearly 45 years of service, Fran Allen retired from IBM.
In addition to her interests in technology, Allen's passions are climbing mountains and studying environmental issues. She's a member of the American Alpine Club and the Alpine Club of Canada, participating in exploratory expeditions to the Artic and on the Chinese/Tibet border.
About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Anita Borg's Institute for Women and Technology increases the positive impact of women on technology through programs, partnerships and events designed encourage women’s engagement in technology development and to support women already working in technology fields. Hewlett-Packard, AT&T Foundation, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft Corporation, Cisco, IBM, ACM and other corporations and individuals support the Institute. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization. For more information see: www.anitaborg.org.
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