Maria Klawe

Maria Klawe (pronounced CLAW-vay) is the fifth president ofHarvey Mudd College (since July 1, 2006).^[1] She was previously Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science atPrinceton University.

Biography[]

Klawe was born inToronto, lived inScotland from ages 4 to 12, and then returned to Canada, living with her family inEdmonton, Alberta.^[2]Klawe studied at theUniversity of Alberta, dropped out to travel the world, and returned to earn herB.Sc. in 1973.^[2] She stayed at Alberta for her graduate studies, and in 1977 she earned herPh.D. there in mathematics.^[3] She started a second Ph.D., in computer science, at theUniversity of Toronto, but was offered a faculty position there before completing the degree.^[2] She spent eight years in the industry, serving atIBMAlmaden Research Center, inSan Jose, California, first as a research scientist, then as manager of theDiscrete Mathematics Group and manager of the Mathematics and Related Computer Science Department. She and her husbandNick Pippenger then moved to theUniversity of British Columbia, where she stayed for 15 years and served as head of theDepartment of Computer Science from 1988 to 1995, vice president of student and academic services from 1995 to 1998, and dean of science from 1998 to 2002.From UBC she moved to Princeton and then Harvey Mudd College. Previously a Canadian national, Klawe was among 5,996 persons who became citizens of the United States at a ceremony held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009.^[4] Later in 2009, she joined theboard of directors of theMicrosoft Corporation.^[2][5]

In addition to her career as a scientist and academic, Maria is well known for her water color painting.^[6]

Awards and honors[]

In 1996 Klawe was inducted as aFellow of theAssociation for Computing Machinery. In 2006, Klawe was inducted as a founding Fellow of theCanadian Information Processing Society.^[7] She was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in a ceremony at the University of Alberta on June 12, 2007. TheUniversity of Ottawa also conferred an honorary doctorate to her in a convocation on June 8, 2008.

Research[]

Some of Klawe's best-cited research works concernalgorithms for solving geometric optimization problems,^[8]distributedleader election,^[9] theart gallery problem,^[10] and the effects of gender on electronic game-playing.^[11][12] She founded the Aphasia Project, a collaboration between UBC and Princeton to studyaphasia and develop cognitive aids for people suffering from it, after her friendAnita Borg developed brain cancer.^[13][14]Klawe'sErdős number is 1.^[15]

References[]

External links[]

• Biography ofMaria Klawe at Human Archives
• Summary ofMaria Klawe atMicrosoft
• Interview ofMaria Klawe as new Dean at Princeton byStephen Ibaraki
• Interview ofMaria Klawe as new Harvey Mudd President byStephen Ibaraki
• Interview ofMaria Klawe as newMicrosoft Board Director, byStephen Ibaraki