Honours come in three for Dame Wendy Hall

Professor Dame Wendy Hall has been elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest organization for computing professionals. Dame Wendy was President of the ACM from 2008 to 2010, the first person from outside North America to hold this position in the ACM’s prestigious 60-year history. Her Fellowship was awarded ‘for contributions to the semantic web and web science and for service to ACM and the international computing community.’

In the research policy arena Dame Wendy is now chairing ISTAG – the Advisory Group for the future direction of the European Commission’s ICT research beyond Framework 7. ISTAG is mandated to provide advice on strategy, objectives and scientific and technological priorities which will shape future research programmes, and the 25 members are drawn from leading universities and communications companies across Europe.

Dame Wendy is also currently featured in an exhibition at the Royal Society, London, of photographic portraits of 47 eminent scientists who are all Fellows of the Royal Society. The exhibition coincides with the end of the Royal Society’s celebrations of its 350th anniversary year, and the portraits, by Anne Purkiss, are also published in a book. Other scientists featured include Sir David Attenborough, Sir Patrick Moore, Richard Dawkins, Lord Krebs, and James Lovelock.

‘I am very honoured to be elected a Fellow of the ACM,’ said Dame Wendy, ‘and to be recognized both for my research and my service to the international community, which is a very significant part of my work. My latest role, as chair of ISTAG, is all about bridging the gap between academia and industry to ensure that research funding that is available is used to best effect. ISTAG has a very important role to play in shaping the future of ICT research in Europe.

‘To be included in the Royal Society exhibition in the company of some of the world’s leading scientists was another great honour, especially at the end of the year in which Web Science formed a major part of the Society’s anniversary celebrations.’