Frances E. Allen

Computer scientist

• Born: August 4, 1932
• Place of Birth: Peru, New York
• Died: August 4, 2020
• Place of Death: Schenectady, New York

Primary Company/Organization: IBM

Introduction

Frances E. Allen, an American computer research scientist and pioneer in computing, spent nearly half a century working on compilers and high-performance computing systems. Her work led to technologies that formed the foundation for the theory of program optimization and contributed to the use of high-performance computers in weather forecasting, DNA matching, and national security code breaking. Allen was among the first women recognized for her role in the technical aspect of computing. Her many honors include being named an IBM Fellow and winning the A. M. Turing Award; in both cases, she was the first woman to be so honored.

Early Life

Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen was born on August 4, 1932, in Peru, New York, a few miles south of the Canadian border. The oldest of six children, four boys and two girls, Allen grew up on the family dairy farm without electricity, plumbing, or central heating. Her parents encouraged their children to read and emphasized the value of education. An excellent student overall, Allen was first interested in English and writing, but, inspired by a mathematics teacher, she decided to become a math teacher. She received a BS degree from the New York State Teachers' College at Albany (now State University of New York at Albany) in 1954 and returned to teach mathematics in Peru at the high school from which she had graduated.

After two years of teaching, she decided to pursue the advanced degree that New York required for full certification of teachers. She attended Columbia University for one summer, but, eager to complete her studies, she entered graduate school at the University of Michigan. At Michigan she was introduced to computing through an elective offered in the school of engineering, a decade before computer science existed as a discipline. The course required Allen to program complex mathematical calculations on a room-size IBM 650, a project she found fascinating. She earned a master's degree in mathematics in 1957 and accepted a job with IBM, which was actively recruiting women at that time. Allen found great satisfaction in teaching and intended to work for IBM for only one year in order to pay off student loans before resuming her career as a high school math teacher.

Life's Work

Joining IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center on July 15, 1957, Allen was first assigned the task of teaching FORTRAN (which stands for "formula translation"), the first high-level programming language, developed by IBM and released in the spring of 1957. Its purpose was to allow scientists and engineers to write programs and thus increase the number of people who could program for computers. Allen found the scientists who were her students resistant to learning FORTRAN and skeptical of its promise, but a 500 percent increase in the speed with which programs could be written eventually persuaded them of the program's value.

A few years later, Allen helped design Alpha, another high-level programming language, for the top-secret Stretch/Harvest computer (an IBM 7030 Stretch supercomputer combined with a unique coprocessor, the IBM 7950 Harvest). So secret was the work that its funding fell under the so-called Bureau of Ships, and only later was the actual sponsoring agency, the National Security Agency (NSA), made public knowledge. Allen's contribution helped to increase the efficiency of intelligence gathering from intercepted communications around the world. At one point, the computer, with its output available only to government officials, scanned more than seven million messages in less than four hours.

During her early years at IBM, Allen worked closely with John Cocke, the research scientist and innovator who, from 1975 to 1980, was the primary designer of the RISC microprocessor architecture, which simplified computer hardware and made faster computation possible. Colleagues say that it was Allen, a strong supporter of sharing IBM's innovations in her field, whose published papers and speeches in academic settings were largely responsible for the dissemination of Cocke's ideas. For fifteen years, from 1980 to 1995, Allen served as head of IBM's research team working on compiler software for multiprocessor computers. Her work on the Parallel Translation (PTRAN) compiler project, which she launched in 1980, is one of her most notable achievements. In 1989, Allen became the first woman to be named an IBM Fellow. The appointed position, the highest honor the company bestows, recognizes an honoree's history of significant achievement and potential for future accomplishments. The fellowship also gave Allen greater freedom to pursue her particular research interests.

In 2000, Allen became technical adviser on IBM's Blue Gene project. The first stage of the project had the goal of building a parallel computer massive enough to handle the immense number of mathematical calculations needed to study biomolecular phenomena such as protein folding. Allen saw in the requirement for extraordinarily fast and powerful computer capabilities and in the need for problem-solving software a return to the projects that had consumed her during her first years in the field.

In 2002, Allen retired after forty-five years at IBM. That year, she received the Ada Lovelace Award, named in honor of the first computer programmer, from the Association for Women in Computing. Four years later, she became the first woman to receive the prestigious A. M. Turing Award, named for British mathematician Alan Turing. The award, presented by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), has been given annually since 1966 to computer scientists and engineers who have made significant contributions of enduring importance to computing. Often called the Nobel Prize of computing, the award carried a cash prize of $100,000 and an invitation to deliver a lecture at ACM's annual meeting.

At various times in her career, during sabbaticals from IBM, Allen returned to teaching as an adjunct professor or visiting lecturer. From 1970 to 1973, she was a visiting professor at New York University. In 1988–89 she served as the Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer and Mackay Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1997, she was Regents Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego.

Allen also served as a longtime advocate for women in computing. When she began at IBM, the company employed women in considerable numbers as programmers, because women were considered more detail-oriented than men, which was thought to be an advantage. However, by the mid-1960s, IBM required employees to have degrees, and most of the degree holders were men. Allen recalls being the only woman among forty IBM scientists working on a project in the 1960s. An early award included a tie clip and cuff links, and even the document naming her an IBM Fellow recognizes Frances E. Allen for "his" contributions.

Allen committed early to encouraging young women to enter the field, and she felt a particular responsibility to women in computer technology at IBM. Formal and informal mentoring became part of her daily routine. She focused on helping women build networks, believing them to be key in gaining promotions, opportunities, and recognition. Acknowledging her contributions as mentor to women within the company in 2000, IBM instituted the Frances E. Allen IBM Women in Technology Mentoring Award and made Allen herself the first recipient. In retirement, she became an IBM Fellow Emerita, serving on the advisory board of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and continuing her commitment to foster the role of women in computing through her active involvement in professional organizations such as the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Engineers, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Personal Life

In 1972, Allen married Jacob Theodore "Jack" Schwartz, a mathematician and founder of the computer science department at New York University, which he chaired from 1964 to 1980. The two met when Schwartz was working on the program optimization that Allen and Cocke had pioneered. Allen and Schwartz later divorced, but they remained friendly and supportive of each other professionally until Schwartz's death in 2009.

An avid mountain climber since the 1970s and a member of the American Alpine Club and the Alpine Club of Canada, Allen participated in expeditions to the Arctic, where she was part of teams that made six first ascents mapping uncharted mountains on Baffin Island (the largest island in the Arctic archipelago) and established a new route across Ellesmere, another island. Other adventures included climbing Mexico's 17,802-foot Popocatépetl and participating in an exploratory expedition on the Chinese-Tibetan border. In April 2006, four years after she retired, she climbed a 14,000-foot peak in the Himalayas. Allen noted that computer research and mountain climbing are not as different as they may seem, as both offer new challenges and opportunities to explore new ideas and solve new problems.

Allen died on her eighty-eighth birthday of Alzheimer's disease.

Bibliography

Allen, Frances E. "Frances Allen: A Pioneer in High-Performance Computing." Interview by Nancy Bronstein. Berkeleyan. U of California, Berkeley, 23 Jan. 2008. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

Allen, Frances E. "An Interview with Frances E. Allen." Interview by Guy L. Steele Jr. Communications of the ACM Jan. 2011: 39–45. Print.

"First Woman Selected for Top Computer Science Award." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 5 Apr. 2007: 51. Print.

Lohr, Steve. "Scientist at Work: Frances Allen; Would-Be Math Teacher Ended Up Educating a Computer Revolution." New York Times. New York Times, 6 Aug. 2002. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

Metz, Cade. "Frances Allen, Who Helped Hardware Understand Software, Dies at 88." The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/technology/frances-allen-dead.html. Accessed 7 Mar. 2024.

Misa, Thomas J., ed. Gender Codes: Why Women Are Leaving Computing. Hoboken: Wiley, 2010. Print.