Professor Vicki Hanson elected President of Association for Computer Machinery
Published On Mon 30 May 2016 by Grant Hill
The University of Dundee’s Professor Vicki Hanson has been elected President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest computing society.
Professor Hanson is Chair of Inclusive Technologies at the University and her distinguished career has seen her research issues of inclusion for older adults and disabled people. She is currently investigating care home design and technology in support of resident mobility and wellness.
ACM is a volunteer-led society and Professor Hanson will continue her university research in addition to her duties during her two-year spell as President of the organisation.
“I am honoured to have been elected,” said Professor Hanson. “In this position, I look forward to working with ACM’s global community to serve researchers and practitioners in computing and its related disciplines.
“With this election, ACM will have its first all-female Executive Committee. This is an opportunity to highlight the contributions that women have made to computing and to inspire young women to view computing as science as a career.”
Professor Hanson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society. She has received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Social Impact, the Profiles in Achievement Award from the University of Oregon, and the ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award. In 2013, she was named one of the 25 Most Powerful Women Engineers in Tech by Business Insider.
Professor Hanson’s professional career spans industry and academia in both the US and the UK. She founded and managed IBM's Accessibility Research group and is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York. She was also one of the founding members of ACM-W Europe, the branch of the organisation that supports and advocates for the full engagement of women in all aspects of computing.
The ACM was founded at the dawn of the computer age and, with 100,000 members, is the world’s largest organisation of its kind. It brings together computing educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address challenges.
The organisation strengthens the profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. It supports the professional growth of its members by raising of the important technical, educational, and social issues relating to computing around the world.
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