Anita Borg (January 17, 1949 - April 6, 2003) was born Anita Borg Naffz in Chicago, Illinois, She grew up in Palatine, Illinois, Kaneohe, Hawaii, and Mukilteo, Washington.
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2 Member of Research Staff, Xerox PARC 3 Presidential Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science |
Ms. Borg was one of a relatively small group of female computer scientists at the Ph.D. level. After getting her doctorate in computer science from New York University in 1981, she worked for several computer companies and then spent 12 years in Digital Equipment's labs. She was well known among other female computer scientists for having created a list server for female engineers, called Systers, and for founding a technical conference for women, called the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
In 1987 while attending a major industry conference, she realized there were only a handful of women attending. She pulled that small group together and started Systers, an e-mail list and information-sharing community providing mentors, support and encouragement to women in computing. Today, Systers has grown to include over 2,500 women in 38 countries.
In 1986, she joined Digital Equipment Corporation's Western Research Laboratory. Developed and patented a method for generating complete address traces used for analyzing and designing high-speed memory systems.
She received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association for Women in Computing for her work on behalf of women in the computing field in 1995. An internationally recognized expert on computer operating systems, she was a consultant engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation's Network Systems Laboratory in Palo Alto with primary responsibility for the MECCA Communications And Information Systems project. Dr. Borg received awards and recognition from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Girl Scouts and Open Computing Magazine's "Top 100 Women In Computing." She was founder and head of the 2000 member Systers List, an electronic forum for professional women in computing and computer science. She organized and led the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing, in Washington D.C. in June, 1994.
She said she has always loved math and science, an interest she attributed to her mother. "My mother taught me that math was fun, so I thought it could be," she said.
Her family attributed her death to brain cancer.Founding Director of The Institute of Women and Technology
Founded in 1987. IWT supported and funded by Xerox. Her goals for the institute were threefold: bring nontechnical women into the design process; encourage more women to become scientists; and help the industry, academia, and the government accelerate these changes. The institute has already received $150,000 in funding from Xerox and Sun, as well as personnel and resources from Lotus (now a division of IBM), Boston University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Xerox is acting as an "incubator" for the institute, which is otherwise independent.. Anita: At IWT, we think that women must be involved in every aspect of defining the future of technology, from policy to research to design and implementation. We must be there in order to assure that the technology of the future serves us well.Member of Research Staff, Xerox PARC
Presidential Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science
In 1999, President Clinton appointed Anita to the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology. charged with recommending strategies to the nation for increasing the breadth of participation fields.
