Barbara Liskov wins Turing Award

This is about a month late, but I wanted to make some mention of it before too much time has passed.

In March, the news broke that Barbara Liskov was the winner of this year's Turing Award.

You may never have heard of the Turing Award, or indeed of Barbara Liskov, but if you're reading this now chances are you've benefitted from her groundbreaking work in computer science.

Most pertinent to me have been her achievements in programming language design and programming methodologies. While not the inventor of the concept, she's played a big role in refining the use of abstract data types. And if you do any object-oriented programming, you're certainly familiar with the substitution principle that bears her name.

I highly recommend downloading and listening to Stephen Ibaraki's interview with her from March, 2009, shortly after the award was announced. It's no fluff piece - she spends nearly an hour discussing a wide range of technology topics.

Links to additional articles:

Feature - Barbara Liskov wins Turing Award [ISGTW]

Computer Whiz Barbara Liskov Wins Turing Award [NPR]

Barbara Liskov wins Turing Award [MIT]

Barbara Liskov wins the 2008 Turing Award [Women in Science]