Barbara Simons

Updated: 12/01/2019 by Computer Hope
Barbara Simons

Name: Barbara Simons

Born: January 26, 1941, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Computer-related contributions

  • American computer scientist and former president of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery.)
  • Employed by IBM, focusing on compiler optimization, algorithm analysis, and the precise synchronization of remotely networked clocks.
  • Founder and past chair of USACM, the ACM U.S. Public Policy Committee.
  • Key research areas are compiler optimization and scheduling theory.
  • On the board of directors of VerifiedVoting.org.
  • Co-founder of the Reentry Program for women and minorities in the Computer Science Department at U.C. Berkeley.

Significant publications

  • Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count? (2012).

Honors and awards

  • U.S. Election Assistance Commission Board of Advisors (2008).
  • First woman to receive the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from the College of Engineering of U.C. Berkeley (2005).
  • Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award (2004).
  • ACM Outstanding Contribution Award (2002).
  • U. C. Berkeley Computer Science Department Distinguished Alumnus Award in Computer Science and Engineering (2000).
  • Served on the President's Export Council's Subcommittee on Encryption and on the Information Technology-Sector of the President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion.
  • Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (1998).
  • Selected by CNET as one of 26 Internet "Visionaries" (1995).
  • Named by Open Computing as one of the top 100 women in computing.
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (1993).

Quotes

"Well, it's the fact that everything you do on the Net can be surveilled. You know about Carnivore. All the databases that have been accumulated about you by private entities and certain government agencies, and the ease with which these things can be matched, drawn together. As more and more of our life moves onto computers and the Net, more and more of what we do is going to be exposed. I'm very concerned that we're moving to a surveillance society, and I think this has only been exacerbated by what's happened since September 11th [2001]." (2002)

Websites