Press Releases: Three Distinguished Technical Women Receive Awards

Paula Goldman and Mary Jane Irwin honored with $10,000 Anita Borg Social Impact and Technology Leadership Awards at 2007 Grace Hopper Conference

Orlando, Florida, October 17, 2007 — The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) will honor two distinguished leaders in technology as recipients of the 2007 Anita Borg Awards during ceremonies on Thursday, October 17, at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, underway here from October 17-20, 2007.

Mary Jane Irwin, Evan Pugh Professor and holder of the A. Robert Noll Chair in Engineering in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Penn State University, and Paula Goldman, Co-founder, Imaging Ourselves will be recognized for significant and sustained contributions in Technical Leadership and Social Impact, respectively. The Anita Borg Awards, established in 2004 in memory of the late Dr. Anita Borg, honor outstanding leaders who embrace Borg’s lasting vision to change the world for women and technology.

The Technology Leadership Award recognizes and celebrates an outstanding woman technical leader and is underwritten by Cisco. Microsoft Corporation is sponsoring the Social Impact Award which honors an individual or team who has caused technology to have a positive impact on the lives of women and society or who has caused women to have a significant impact on the design and use of technology. Each is a $10,000 award.

“The accomplishments of Mary Jane Irwin and Paula Goldman demonstrate the powerful and positive influence that women can have on shaping a brighter future for all of us and in doing so inspire a whole new generation of women,” said Telle Whitney, ABI President and CEO. “They are innovators and trailblazers in technology and exemplify the individual’s capacity to excel, following their own vision while empowering others to define and pursue their personal goals and aspirations.”

Recipients’ Profiles

• Paula Goldman
  Paula Goldman is the founder and director of the Imaging Ourselves project with the International Museum of Women. An anthropologist and social entrepreneur, she melds a professional background in public policy with impressive academic skills in order to understand – and improve—the lives of young women across the globe. Whether working on reconciliation projects in Bosnia, or initiating educational opportunities in India that forge professional paths for rural high school graduates, she finds satisfaction by instigating opportunities that result in increased opportunity for underserved populations. She has lived and worked in more than ten countries on four continents.
• Mary Jane Irwin
  Mary Jane (Janie) Irwin is an Evan Pugh Professor and holder of the A. Robert Noll Chair in Engineering in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Penn State University. She has been on the faculty at Penn State since completing her Ph.D. in computer science from The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1977. Her research and teaching interests include computer architecture, embedded and mobile computing systems design, power and reliability aware design, and emerging technologies in computing systems. She has published over 300 technical papers and has graduated more than twenty-five PhD students.

Rachel Pottinger wins Inaugural Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award

In addition, the Anita Borg Institute announced today that Rachel Pottinger is the winner of the Inaugural Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award. Rachel Pottinger is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. The Award honors the life and work of Denice Denton (1959-2006) and recognizes a man or a woman under the age of 35 who has demonstrated a significant leadership capability and positive impact of the lives of women through technology. The $5,000 award is underwritten by Microsoft.

“I was floored to learn that I had won the first Denice Denton Emerging Leader award. I learned about Denice’s leadership qualities and worked on my own after she appointed me to the chair search committee for my department, Computer Science & Engineering, said Pottinger. “I met Denice while she was Dean of Engineering at the University of Washington. I know from personal experience that support from a caring person at the right moment makes a huge difference, and that those connections happen best when forums exist for people to feel connected and get their questions answered.

For further information on these notable Anita Borg Award or Denice Denton Award winners, or for additional information on the 2007 Grace Hopper Celebration please visit Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Grace Hopper Conference 2007 Sponsors

Corporate and Government Sponsors
Platinum Corporate Sponsors: Cisco, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft. Platinum Government Underwriter: National Science Foundation (NSF). Gold Corporate Sponsors: Amazon, CA, and Yahoo. Silver Corporate Sponsors: Argonne National laboratory, eBay, Goldman Sachs, Intuit, Juniper Networks, SAIC, Salesforce.com, Symantec, and Thoughtworks. Bronze Corporate Sponsors: Adobe, NetApp, Oracle, and AT&T Research Labs. Supporter Corporate Sponsors: Akamai Technologies, Chubb, Harris Corporation, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and State Farm Insurance. Start-Up/Non-Profit Sponsors: National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), Invent Your Future Enterprises. Founding Sponsors: Computer Research Association (CRA) and CRA-W.

Academic Underwriters
Gold Academic Underwriters: Georgia Tech College of Computing, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Southampton. Silver Academic Underwriters: Carnegie Mellon The Information Networking Institute, New York University, Northwestern University, California Institute of Technology, and UC Berkeley. Bronze Academic Underwriters: Calit2 and Jacobs School of Engineering, Penn Engineering, Indiana University, Tufts, University of Iowa, University of Texas at Austin, UCSC Baskin Engineering, UCSD, and University of Waterloo. Affiliate Academic Underwriters: Arizona State University, Cornell University, Pace University, Purdue University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Delaware, www.STARSAlliance.org, and The College of Computing and Informatics at UNC Charlotte.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI):
In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, the Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs for industry, academia, and government to help them recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high tech fields resulting in higher levels of technology innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Google, IBM, Intel, Cisco, Juniper Networks, Career Action Center, National Science Foundation, Symantec, NetApp, and Capgemini. www.anitaborg.org.

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a program of the
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
and is co-presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
www.gracehopper.org