10 June 2012

Prestigious computing election for Dundee Professor

Professor Vicki Hanson, of the University of Dundee, has been elected to a prestigious position with the world's largest educational and scientific computing society.

Vicki Hanson is Professor of Inclusive Technologies at the University of Dundee, and Research Staff Member Emeritus at IBM Research. She has now been elected Secretary/Treasurer of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), which represents more than 100,000 members worldwide.

"I am delighted to have been elected to this executive position within ACM," said Professor Hanson. "I look forward to working with the other officers to continue to support ACM's international efforts and maintain the high level of professional benefits for ACM members."

Dr Janet Hughes, Dean of the School of Computing at the University of Dundee, said, "This is well-deserved recognition of Vicki Hanson's excellent work and long-standing contribution to ACM."

Professor Hanson works on issues of inclusion for older and disabled people with research on accessible and usable technology for diverse populations. While at the IBM Research Division, she founded and managed the Accessibility Research group. She is also a past chair of ACM's Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS), and the founder and co-editor-in-chief of ACM's Transactions on Accessible Computing.

She is a Fellow of the ACM and of the British Computer Society, as well as being a member of the UK Computing Research Committee. A recipient of the ACM SIGCHI (Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction) Social Impact Award, she holds a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award, which benefits outstanding scientists.

ACM also announced the election of Vinton G. Cerf as president for a two-year term beginning July 1. Cerf, who is Chief Internet Evangelist at Google Inc., said his vision as president is to take advantage of the global networking infrastructure to invite open dialog with ACM's worldwide membership.

Also elected to a two-year term was Vice President Alexander L. Wolf of Imperial College London, UK.

In addition, Members-at-Large elected to four-year terms include Eric Allman, chief science officer for Sendmail Inc.; Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Yahoo! vice president of Research for Europe and Latin America; Radia Perlman, director of Network Technology at Intel; Mary Lou Soffa, professor and chair of the University of Virginia Computer Science Department; and Eugene H. Spafford, professor at Purdue University and executive director of the Purdue Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS), and chair of the ACM US Public Policy Council.

The new officers elected by ACM professional members represent the more than 100,000 computing professionals and students who comprise ACM's international membership. They pledged to continue ACM's international growth with the expansion of regional councils to developing countries, and to strengthen ACM's influence in shaping the computing profession as a source of innovation and advances that benefit society.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.

For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902