Barbara Liskov
Born 1939 · Age 86
American computer scientist known for work on data abstraction, CLU, Argus, the Liskov substitution principle, and distributed systems; Institute Professor at MIT and 2008 Turing Award winner.
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Life & Career Timeline
Birth
Born Barbara Jane Huberman in Los Angeles, California, eldest of four children of Jane (née Dickhoff) and Moses Huberman.
BA in Mathematics from UC Berkeley
Earned bachelor's degree in mathematics with a minor in physics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Joined Mitre Corporation (first stint)
Moved to Boston and worked at the Mitre Corporation for about one year, where she discovered an aptitude for computers and programming.
Programming job at Harvard (language translation)
Took a programming position at Harvard working on natural language translation, motivating return to graduate school.
Returned to Mitre Corporation as research staff
Rejoined Mitre after Ph.D. to work on computer design, microcode, and operating systems research.
Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University
Awarded Ph.D. from Stanford (one of the first women in the U.S. with a CS departmental PhD). Thesis: 'A Program to Play Chess End Games'. Advisor: John McCarthy.
Marriage to Nathan Liskov
Married Nathan Liskov (often referenced as Nate Liskov).
Venus operating system research & conference paper
Designed the Venus machine and small timesharing Venus OS; presented paper at a major symposium and won a best-paper recognition, leading to MIT faculty recruitment.
Joined MIT faculty (Laboratory for Computer Science)
Hired as a professor at MIT in the Computer Science Department; became one of the very few women on MIT faculty and one of the first female CS faculty members at MIT.
Published 'Programming with abstract data types'
Seminal paper formalizing abstract data types and data abstraction—key conceptual foundation for modular programming.
Established Programming Methodology research group (early period)
Formed and led the Programming Methodology Group at MIT (PMG), focusing on program design, specification, and abstraction.
Published 'Abstraction mechanisms in CLU'
Paper describing CLU abstractions—part of CLU language work that influenced later programming languages.
Promoted to full professor at MIT
Achieved full professorship at MIT (listed as full professor in 1980).
Worked on Argus language (1980s research)
Led development of Argus, a high-level language to support implementation of distributed programs and nested transactions (research span through 1980s).
Published CLU: Reference Manual (book)
CLU reference manual published (Springer, 1981), documenting CLU language developed in the 1970s emphasizing data abstraction and modularity.
Co-edited 'Distributed Systems: Methods and Tools for Specification' (book)
Contributed to a 1985 Springer advanced course volume on distributed systems specification and methods.
Published 'Abstraction and Specification in Program Development' (book)
Co-authored with John Guttag; a textbook on methods for program development, abstraction, and specification (MIT Press, 1986).
Published 'Distributed programming in Argus'
Detailed distributed programming concepts in Argus (Comm. ACM, March 1988), representing culmination of 1980s Argus work.
Elected to National Academy of Engineering
Elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of major contributions to computer science.
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Inducted as a fellow of AAAS (American Academy of Arts and Sciences).
Published 'Providing high availability using lazy replication'
Co-authored with Ladin, Shrira, and Ghemawat (ACM Trans. on Computer Systems, Nov 1992) on replication for high availability in distributed systems.
Published Liskov & Wing 'A behavioral notion of subtyping'
With Jeannette Wing, articulated the Liskov substitution principle (ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, Nov 1994).
Fellow of ACM and SWE Achievement Award
Elected ACM Fellow (1996) and received Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award (1996).
Published 'Practical Byzantine fault tolerance'
Co-authored with Miguel Castro (OSDI '99) introducing a practical algorithm for Byzantine fault tolerance in distributed systems.
Published 'Program Development in Java' (book)
Co-authored with John Guttag; textbook on abstraction, specification, and object-oriented design (2000).
Published 'Protecting privacy using the decentralized label model'
Co-authored with Andrew Myers (ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Oct 2000) on decentralized label model for privacy protection.
Associate Department Head, MIT Computer Science (start)
Served as Associate Head for Computer Science at MIT from 2001 to 2004 (first woman in that role).
Named among MIT's top women faculty and Discover's 50 most important women in science
Recognized in 2002 as one of the top women faculty at MIT and one of Discover magazine's 50 most important women in science.
IEEE John von Neumann Medal
Received IEEE John von Neumann Medal for contributions to programming languages, methodology, and distributed systems.
Son Moses awarded PhD from MIT
Her son, Moses Liskov, earned a PhD in computer science from MIT (2004).
ETH Zurich Honorary Doctorate
Awarded an honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich (shared distinction with Donald E. Knuth; featured in Distinguished Colloquium Series).
Appointed Associate Provost for Faculty Equity (MIT)
Appointed to MIT administrative role as Associate Provost for Faculty Equity (role noted in ACM biography).
ACM SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award & SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award
Received ACM SIGPLAN lifetime achievement award and ACM SIGSOFT impact recognition (2008).
Named recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award (2008)
Awarded the 2008 A.M. Turing Award for contributions to programming languages, data abstraction, and distributed computing (official ceremony in March 2009).
Named Institute Professor at MIT
Named an MIT Institute Professor (highest MIT faculty honor) and holds the Ford Professor of Engineering title.
Infosys Prize inaugural Engineering & Computer Science jury member
Served on the inaugural jury for the Infosys Prize in Engineering and Computer Science (2009).
Turing Award ceremony and recognition
Formal recognition/ceremony for the 2008 ACM A.M. Turing Award (ceremony and press coverage in March 2009).
Honorary doctorates: Northwestern University and University of Lugano
Awarded honorary doctorates by Northwestern University (Chicago) and the University of Lugano (USI) in 2011.
CMU Katayanagi Prize for Research Excellence
Received the CMU Katayanagi Prize for Research Excellence in Computer Science (2011).
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
Inducted for innovations in computer programming languages and software methodology.
Computer Pioneer Award & Honorary doctorate (UPM)
Received Computer Pioneer Award (IEEE Computer Society) and an honorary doctorate from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (2018).
Featured in Quanta Magazine profile
Profiled in Quanta Magazine reflecting on her career and contributions to algorithms and programming languages (Nov 2019).
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer & Cognitive Science
Awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal by the Franklin Institute for seminal contributions to programming languages and methodology.
Author of five books and 100+ technical papers (by 2023)
By February 2023, Liskov had authored five books and over 100 technical papers spanning programming languages, distributed systems, and software methodology.
Key Achievement Ages
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