Klawe Honored For Contributions to Computing

Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe has received the Computing Research Association’s (CRA) 2016 Distinguished Service Award for her commitment to and impact on the computing research community.

“Klawe has used her leadership positions to strengthen the research discipline of computer science and to establish new norms and policies to increase the percentage of women and minorities in computer science and technology,” wrote the CRA in a press release. “She is dedicated to increasing the percentage of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM, with a focus on increasing computing researchers and engineers.”

Founded in 1972, CRA’s mission is to enhance innovation by joining with industry, government and academia to strengthen research and advanced education in computing. CRA executes this mission by leading the computing research community, informing policymakers and the public, and facilitating the development of strong, diverse talent in the field.

“I am thrilled and honored to receive the CRA Distinguished Service Award,” said Klawe. “I’ve worked with various groups at CRA for decades. I appreciate having had the opportunity to work with incredible colleagues to advance computing research and education including the important work of increasing diversity in the field.”

A renowned computer scientist and scholar, Klawe supported the Harvey Mudd Computer Science Department’s innovative efforts to attract women to CS, which increased the percentage of the College’s female CS majors from 10 percent in 2005 to a current average of 40 percent. With Telle Whitney of the Anita Borg Institute, she helped launched the BRAID initiative (Building, Recruiting And Inclusion for Diversity) in 2014, which partners with U.S. universities to increase the percentage of women and students of color majoring in computer science. She served previously as president of the Association for Computing Machinery and as board chair of Anita Borg Institute.

Some of Klawe’s recent honors include the American Association of University Women Achievement Award (2015), the Canadian Association of Computer Science/Association d’informatique Canadienne Lifetime Achievement Award (2015), and the Women of Vision ABIE Award (2014). In 2004, Klawe was a recipient of CRA’s A. Nico Habermann Award in recognition of her role as a founding co-chair of the Computing Research Association for Women (CRA-W) Committee.