Nancy Amato Wins the Habermann Award

The Computing Research Association (CRA) gives the A. Nico Habermann Award to a person who has made outstanding contributions aimed at increasing the numbers and/or successes of underrepresented groups in the computing research community. This year, the award goes to Nancy Amato, Unocal Professor and Interim Department Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Nancy has been a tireless and highly effective leader of programs that engage women and underrepresented minorities in computing research. In particular, she has led the CRA-W Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU) program. Nancy has an impressive breadth of work not only at Texas A&M, but also nationally with organizations including CRA-W, CDC, NCWIT and the Grace Hopper conference. Her nominators provided data showing her positive impact on the participation and success of women as well as members of underrepresented groups in computing research. She has also been an effective supporter of the Tapia conference. Nancy will become one of the next co-chairs of CRA-W in the fall.

This award honors the late A. Nico Habermann, who headed NSF’s CISE Directorate and who was deeply committed to increasing the participation of women and underrep-resented minorities in computing research.