Professor Dame Wendy Hall receives Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award

Professor Dame Wendy Hall has been recognised by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for transforming the way the world views computing.

As the first ACM President from outside North America, Dame Wendy initiated the establishment of ACM Councils in Europe, India and China, extending the organisation’s scope to a borderless audience. She also focused on the education of upcoming computer science generations, promoting gender diversity and nurturing talent in computing from all corners of the world. She has been recognised for this work with the Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award, which will be presented at the ACM Awards Banquet in June.

Commenting on the award, current ACM President Alexander L. Wolf said "Hall provided leadership and inspiration at a time when the computing discipline exploded onto the international scene, promoting ACM as the foremost association of computing professionals worldwide.�

A Professor of Computer Science within Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, Dame Wendy was a founding director of the Web Science Research Initiative to promote the discipline of Web Science and foster research collaboration between the University of Southampton and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was President of the British Computer Society and, since 2014, has served as a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance. In 2009, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). She was elected President of the ACM in July 2008.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, 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.