Barbara Liskov scoops 2009 Turing Award

Barbara Liskov is only the second woman to win the Turing Award

Barbara Liskov, the first woman to be awarded a PhD in computer science, has won this year's Turing Award, the so-called Nobel Prize of computing.

"Barbara Liskov has led important developments in computing by creating and implementing programming languages, operating systems and innovative system designs that have advanced the state of the art of data abstraction, modularity, fault tolerance, persistence and distributed computing systems," said the Association for Computing Machinery in the citation.

Liskov was a pioneer in the field of data abstraction, a way of organising complex programs that makes computer programming much easier.

She also invented two computer programming languages: CLU, one of the first object-oriented codes; and Argus, a distributed programming language.

Liskov currently leads the Programming Methodology Group in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. She has been in the department since 1972.

"Barbara Liskov pioneered some of the most important advances in fundamental computer science," said MIT provost L. Rafael Reif.

"Her exceptional achievements have leapt from the halls of academia to transform daily life around the world. Every time you exchange email with a friend, check your bank statement online or run a Google search, you are riding the momentum of her research."

Liskov is only the second woman to receive the Turing Award. Frances Allen was the first in 2006, and Liskov joins such IT legends as Marvin Minsky, and Vint Cerf and Robert Khan. The award comes with a $250,000 prize.