Born: 4 August 1932, United States
Died: 4 August 2020
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Frances Elizabeth Allen was an accomplished American computer scientist, and is renowned for her pioneering work in optimizing compilers. Allen grew up on a farm in Peru, New York, near Lake Champlain, as the eldest of six children. Her father worked as a farmer, while her mother served as an elementary school teacher. She began her education in a one-room schoolhouse, later progressing to a local high school.
From 1957 to 2002, Allen dedicated her career to IBM. She notably became the first woman to achieve the title of IBM Fellow. In 1959, she joined the Harvest project, collaborating with the National Security Agency on codebreaking efforts and contributing to the development of the Alpha programming language. Allen was pivotal in overseeing compiler-optimization endeavors for the Harvest and Stretch projects.
In 2006, Allen became the first woman to receive the Turing Award, a testament to her exceptional contributions. Her remarkable work spanned compilers, program optimization, and parallelization, profoundly impacting the field of computer science. Her enduring legacy is further highlighted by her transition to the role of Fellow Emerita, solidifying her lasting influence.