IEEE Awards Booklet - 2009 - 10

I E E E

M E D A L S

2009 IEEE
John von Neumann Medal

2009 IEEE
Simon Ramo Medal

Sponsored by IBM Corporation

Sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corporation

Susan L. Graham

Albert F. Myers

For contributions to programming language design and
implementation and for exemplary service to the discipline
of computer science

For invaluable contributions to the flight-control
systems and specifically for flight testing of the B-2
stealth bomber

Susan L. Graham's seminal contributions and leadership have
greatly influenced software development and high-performance
computing. Together with her students, Dr. Graham's programming language implementation innovations include a
sophisticated pattern-matching algorithm for generating
machine code for high-level languages, which is important for
today's processors, and an important and useful eliminationstyle algorithm for flow analysis. She introduced automatic error
message generation as a useful tool, pointing the field in a new
direction; as a result IBM has used automatic error message
generation in several of its production compilers. She and her
students developed the "gprof" profiling tool for analyzing the
execution efficiency of programs and new algorithms for
debugging programs. She led the development of the Berkeley
Pascal compiler and the distribution of and extensions of BSD
Unix. Dr. Graham was also the co-creator of the Titanium
language and system, which is used to develop parallel programs
for scientific applications.

Albert Myers made numerous contributions to the success of
the B-2 program, most significantly in the areas of flight control,
project engineering and flight test. Using his extensive
knowledge of flight mechanics and digital control, he was able
to overcome the challenges of making the tailless B-2 fly like a
conventional airplane with superior capability to deliver weapons
and maintain stealth properties.
Mr. Myers led the team that implemented a robust flight-control
system that also enhanced the plane's stealth characteristics. His
introduction of a fully integrated fly-by-wire (computer-controlled flight) flight-control system was revolutionary, requiring
integration with the propulsion, weapons and stealth systems.
Mr. Myers also provided the leadership that allowed the redesigned aircraft to operate at low altitude and high speed,
requiring a significant advancement in the state-of-the-art to
provide a critical gust-load alleviation capability, in which the
flight control system detects gusts and causes the flight-control
computers to command the aircraft to pitch into the gust.

Dr. Graham has served on the Presidential Information
Technology Advisory Committee, where she was actively
involved in influencing the U.S. Congress to bolster information
technology spending. She co-chaired the National Research
Council's Future of Supercomputing committee. She was the
chief computer scientist for the National Partnership for
Advanced Computational Infrastructure, ensuring that the best
computer science results were transferred into important computation-based science applications. She participates in a variety
of science and engineering advisory groups.

As vice president of test operations at Northrop in 1988, Mr.
Myers ensured that the B-2 was ready for its first flight, overcoming the challenges of system qualification and flight readiness
review of all tests related to the first flight. His leadership at
Northrop Grumman contributed the company's success in global
defense systems with more than $30 billion in annual revenues.
An IEEE member, Mr. Myers retired from Northrop Grumman in
2006 as corporate vice president of strategy and technology
and is currently an independent consultant residing in La Habra
Heights, California.

Her current research interest is on developing interactive language-aware tools for creating and maintaining software. An
IEEE member, Dr. Graham is currently the Pehong Chen
Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science Emerita and a professor in the Graduate School at the
University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2009