Frances Elizabeth Allen  (August 4, 1932August 4, 2020) was an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Allen was the first woman to become an IBM Fellow, and in 2006 became the first woman to win the Turing Award. Her achievements include seminal work in compilers, program optimization, and parallelization. She worked for IBM from 1957 to 2002 and subsequently was a Fellow Emerita.

Early life and education
Allen grew up on a farm in Peru, New York, near Lake Champlain, as the oldest of six children. Her father was a farmer, and her mother an elementary schoolteacher. Her early elementary education took place in a one-room school house a mile away from her home, and she later attended a local high school.

She graduated from The New York State College for Teachers (now part of the University at Albany, SUNY) with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics in 1954 and began teaching school in Peru, New York. After two years, she enrolled at the University of Michigan and earned a Master of Science degree in mathematics in 1957.

Career and research
Deeply in debt with student loans, she joined IBM Research in Poughkeepsie, New York, as a programmer in 1957, where she taught incoming employees the basics of Fortran. She planned to return to teaching once her student loans had been paid, but ended up staying with IBM for her entire 45-year career. In 1959, Allen was assigned to the Harvest project for code breaking with the National Security Agency, and worked on a programming language called Alpha. She managed the compiler-optimization team for both Harvest and the Stretch project. 

In 1962, she was transferred to Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where she contributed to the ACS-1 project, and later in the 1970s, to PL/I. During these years, she worked with fellow researcher John Cocke to write a series of seminal papers on optimizing compilers, helping to improve the efficiency of machine code translated from high-level languages.

From 1970 to 1971 she spent a sabbatical at New York University and acted as adjunct professor for a few years afterward. Another sabbatical brought her to Stanford University in 1977.

From 1980 to 1995, Allen led IBM's work in the developing parallel computing area, and helped to develop software for the IBM Blue Gene project. Allen became the first female IBM Fellow in 1989. She retired from IBM in 2002, but remained affiliated with the corporation as a Fellow Emerita. In 2007, the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship Award was created in her honor. After retiring, she remained active in programs that encourage women and girls to seek careers in science and computing.

Her A. M. Turing Award citation reads:

Awards and honors

Allen was a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 2000, she was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for her contributions to program optimization and compiling for parallel computers". She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987, to the American Philosophical Society in 2001, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010. She was nominated a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.

She received the IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award in 1997 and the Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society in 2004. In 1997, Allen was inducted into the Witi Hall of Fame. She won the 2002 Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association for Women in Computing. In 2004, Allen was the winner of the ABIE Award for Technical Leadership from the Anita Borg Institute.

Allen was recognized for her work in high-performance computing with the 2006 Turing Award. She became the first woman recipient in the forty-year history of the award, which is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for computing and is given by the Association for Computing Machinery. In interviews following the award she hoped it would give more "opportunities for women in science, computing, and engineering".

In 2009 she was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from McGill University for "pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution".

Publications 
A list of her select publications includes:
 
 Allen, Frances E., "Interprocedural data flow analysis", Proceedings of Information Processing 74, IFIP, Elsevier / North-Holland (1974), 398–402.
 Allen, Frances E. and J. Cocke, "A program data flow analysis procedure", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 19, No. 3 (March 1976), 137–147.
 Allen, Frances E. et al., "The Experimental Compiling System", IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 24, No. 6, (November 1980), 695–715.
 Allen, Frances E., "The history of language processor technology at IBM", IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 25, No. 5 (September 1981), 535–548.

Personal life
In 1972, Allen married New York University computer science professor and collaborator Jacob T. Schwartz. They divorced in 1982.

Allen died on August 4, 2020, her 88th birthday, from complications with Alzheimer’s disease.

References

External links

 Frances Allen: 2000 Fellow Awards Recipient via Computer History Museum
 Fran Allen on Compilers and Parallel Computing Systems Notes from her 2008 Organick Memorial Lecture

1932 births
2020 deaths
American computer scientists
Programming language researchers
American women computer scientists
Turing Award laureates
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Fellow Members of the IEEE
IBM Fellows
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
IBM Research computer scientists
New York University faculty
People from Peru, New York
University at Albany, SUNY alumni
University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni
20th-century American scientists
21st-century American scientists
20th-century American women scientists
21st-century American women scientists
Scientists from New York (state)
프랜시스 앨리자벳 앨런(Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen, 1932년 8월 4일 ~ 2020년 8월 4일)은 미국의 컴퓨터 과학자이자 컴파일러 최적화 분야의 개척자이다. 최초의 여성 IBM 펠로우였으며 2006년에는 튜링상을 수상한 최초의 여성이다. 그녀는 컴파일러의 주요 작업, 프로그램 최적화 및 병렬화가 포함 분야에서 업적을 남겼다. 2002년부터 IBM의 명예 연구원(Fellow Emerita)로 있다.

교육 및 초기 생활 
앨런은 뉴욕 페루의 한 농장에서 자랐다. 뉴욕 주립 교육대학 (현 올버니 대학교의 일부)에서 1954년 수학으로 학사학위를 받고 고향 페루에서 교사 생활을 보냈다. 2년 후 그녀는 미시간 대학교에 입학하여 1957년 수학 석사학위를 받았다.

경력 및 연구 
학자금 채무 상황을 해결하기 위해 앨런은 1957년 프로그래머로 뉴욕 포킵시에 있는 IBM 리서치에 입사하여, 신규 직원들에게 포트란의 기초를 가르치는 업무를 맡았다. 채무 상황이 해결되면 교직으로 복귀할 예정이었으나, 그녀는 결국 45년 동안 IBM에 계속 재직하게 되었다. 1959년에 미국 국가안보국에서 코드 브레이킹 프로젝트에 배정되어, Alpha라는 프로그래밍 언어로 작업했다. 그녀는 Harvest와 Stretch 프로젝트에서 컴파일러 최적화 팀을 관리했다. 1960년대에 그녀는 ACS-1 프로젝트에, 1970년대에는 PL/I에 공헌하였다. 1970년부터 1971년까지 뉴욕 대학교에서 안식년을 보냈으며 몇 년 동안 겸임 교수로 활동했다. 그후 다음 안식년인 1977년, 스탠포드 대학으로 이동했다.

앨런은 1989년에 최초의 여성 IBM 펠로우가 되었다. 그녀는 2002년 IBM에서 퇴직했으나, 명예 펠로우(Fellow Emerita)로 회사와의 관계를 유지하고 있다. 2007년에 IBM Ph.D. 펠로우쉽상이 그녀를 기리기 위해 만들어졌다.

선정 출판물 
그녀의 논문은는 다음과 같다.

 Allen, Frances E. and John Cocke. “A catalogue of optimizing transformations,” in Randall Rustin (ed.), Design and Optimization of Compilers (Prentice-Hall, 1972), 1-30.
 Allen, Frances E., “Interprocedural data flow analysis,” Proceedings of Information Processing 74, IFIP, Elsevier / North-Holland (1974), 398-402.
 Allen, Frances E. and J. Cocke, “A program data flow analysis procedure,” Communications of the ACM, Vol. 19, Num. 3 (March 1976), 137-147.
 Allen, Frances E. et al., “The Experimental Compiling System,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 24, Num. 6, (November, 1980), 695-715.
 Allen, Frances E., “The history of language processor technology at IBM,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, Vol. 25, Num. 5 (September 1981), 535-548.

수상 및 영예 

알렌은 IEEE 및 ACM의 펠로우이다. 2000년 그녀는 "병렬 컴퓨터를 위한 프로그램 최적화 및 컴파일에 기여한" 공로로 컴퓨터 역사 박물관의 펠로우로 선정되었다. 그녀는 1987년에 국립 공학 아카데미, 2001년에 미국 철학 협회,, 2010년에는 국립 과학 아카데미에 선정되었다. 그녀는 1994년에 미국 예술 과학 아카데미의 연구원으로 지명되기도 했다.

1997년 IEEE 컴퓨터 협회 Charles Babbage Award를, 2004년 IEEE 컴퓨터 협회 Computer Pioneer Award를 수상했다. 1997년에 앨런은 WITI 명예의 전당에 입성했다. 그녀는 2002년 여성 컴퓨팅 협회로부터 Augusta Ada Lovelace Award를 수상했다. 2004년 Anita Borg Institute의 ABIE 기술 리더십 상을 수상했다.

2006에 수상한 튜링상을 통해 앨런은 고성능 컴퓨팅 분야에서 일한 공로를 인정받았다. 튜링상의 40여년의 역사 가운데 최초의 여성 수상자가 되었으며, 이는 컴퓨터 과학 부문에서 노벨상에 필적하는 것으로 간주된다. 그녀는 수상 소감에서 "과학, 컴퓨팅 및 엔지니어링 분야의 여성들에게 더 많은 기회"가 돌아갈 것을 기대했다.

2009년에 그녀는 맥길대학교로부터 "현대 최적화 컴파일러 및 자동 병렬 실행을 위한 토대를 마련한 컴파일러 기술 최적화 이론 및 실천에 대한 선구자적 기여" 로 명예 과학 박사 학위를 수여받았다.

사생활 
앨런은 1972년 NYU 교수 Jacob T. Schwartz 와 결혼했었다.

참고 문헌

외부 링크 

 Frances Allen: 2000 Fellow Awards Recipient via Computer History Museum
 Fran Allen on Compilers and Parallel Computing Systems Notes from her 2008 Organick Memorial Lecture

뉴욕 주립 대학교 올버니 동문
뉴욕 대학교 교수
ACM 석학회원
미국 예술과학 아카데미 석학회원
튜링상 수상자
여자 컴퓨터 과학자
미국의 여자 과학자
1932년 출생
2020년 사망
미국의 컴퓨터 과학자
20세기 미국 사람
21세기 미국 사람
IEEE 석학회원
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