CRA’s incoming Board Chair Peter Lee, Deborah Estrin of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Chris Greer of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) National Coordinating Office testified before the House Science and Technology Committee last week on the NITRD Act of 2009. The Act incorporates the findings and recommendations of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for the NITRD program. The hearing was well attended by members of the committee as well with a dozen attending at least part of the hearing.
All three witnesses praised the legislation for incorporating the PCAST recommendations for NITRD and for addressing a need in the research infrastructure. Lee specifically pointed out how easy it would be for the United States to lose the lead in IT R&D to other countries if it is not a focus, a comment picked up on by Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) during the question and answer portion of the hearing.
Questions from the Members of Congress ranged from agency participation in NITRD to security to education. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) asked about the need for intervention in the education system to fill the pipeline of scientists particularly for attracting women and minorities. Estrin spoke to the importance of reaching children in junior high school or earlier and making the connection between computer science and the larger societal problems that it can help fix such as energy and environmental issues and healthcare improvement. Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO) and Congressman Lincoln Davis (D-TN) both brought up the issue of national security, noting that there are daily attacks from other countries on our systems with the intent of uncovering sensitive data and that our networks are vulnerable to hacking. Greer noted that security is always a challenge at the forefront of NITRD. Estrin and Lee both stated that there are numerous research projects underway attempting to increase the security of networks and Estrin emphasized the necessity of having security parameters that are usable by the average person.
The committee has not yet introduced the Act, though it’s expected to shortly after the current congressional recess ends next week. When the bill is dropped, we’ll have a complete analysis of it here, so stay tuned. In the meantime, the full written testimony as well as the webcast of the full hearing is available on the Committee’s web site.
John P. Holdren was confirmed as the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy yesterday. The OSTP Director is the top White House science adviser and Holdren was approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee a week ago following a hold on his nomination. The reason for the hold has been variously attributed to concerns over his positions on climate change and to unrelated issues involving the Administrations position on Cuba.
Holdren was the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard University and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center before being asked to serve in the Obama Administration. He has also served as President and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and as a member of the Presidents Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) during the Clinton Administration. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Barbara Liskov, a professor at MIT, has received the 2008 A.M. Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for her work in the design of computer programming languages. Liskov is only the second woman to receive the Turing Award and she was the first woman to earn a computer science PhD. The A.M. Turing Award was first presented in 1966 and was named for British mathematician Alan M. Turing, is widely considered the “Nobel Prize in Computing.” It carries a $250,000 prize, with financial support from Intel Corporation and Google Inc.
A press release from MIT quoted Provost L. Rafael Reif saying, Barbara Liskov pioneered some of the most important advances in fundamental computer science. Her exceptional achievements have leapt from the halls of academia to transform daily life around the world. Every time you exchange e-mail with a friend, check your bank statement online or run a Google search, you are riding the momentum of her research.”
The full citation for the A.M. Turing Award states:
Barbara Liskov has led important developments in computing by creating and implementing programming languages, operating systems, and innovative systems designs that have advanced the state of the art of data abstraction, modularity, fault tolerance, persistence, and distributed computing systems.
The Venus operating system was an early example of principled operating system design. The CLU programming language was one of the earliest and most complete programming languages based on modules formed from abstract data types and incorporating unique intertwining of both early and late binding mechanisms. ARGUS extended many of the CLU ideas to distributed programming, and incorporated the first versions of nested transactions to maintain predictable consistencies. Other advances include solutions elegantly combining theory and pragmatics in the areas of decentralized information flow, replicated storage and caching of persistent objects, and modular upgrading of distributed systems. Her contributions have been incorporated into the practice of programming, thereby influencing many of the most important systems used today: for programming, specification, systems design, and distributed architectures.
In addition to her research, Liskov is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and ACM, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and IEEE. She won the 1996 Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers and has served on a wide variety of interest groups and advisory committees.
From the CCC Blog
- MIT’s Subra Suresh reportedly to be nominated as new Director of NSF Ran Libeskind-Hadas
- Eric Brewer wins ACM – Infosys Foundation Award Ed Lazowska
- Chuck Thacker wins Turing Award Ed Lazowska
- FOCUS identifies “The Best Jobs in America� Ed Lazowska