Turing awards are annual awards given to an individual who has contributed to technology related to computer field. The work must be having importance and should be lasting. Turing awards are considered as equivalent to Nobel Prize for computing. These awards are given by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), which was founded in the year 1947 as the world’s first scientific and educational computing society. It is announced every year in February-March and awarded in the ACM Award Banquet in June. The award is named after Alan Matheson Turing, a British scientist, mathematician at The University of Manchester, He is considered as Father of Modern computer science.
Alan perlis is the First recipient of this award in 1966 for his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and compiler construction. Frances E. Allen of IBM, in 2006, was the first female recipient in the award's forty year history for pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution. But just two years later we had one more women recipient Barbara liskov in 2008. Turing award hasn’t been awarded to an Indian citizen in the history of these awards. Raj reddy along with Edward Feigenbaum has been awarded in 1994 for pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology. Raj reddy was an US citizen by then.
Importance:
Being a Graduate from computer science background, it is important for me to know the excellence awards given in the field for computer science. Since Turing awards are recognized as highest distinction in Computer science one has to have at least the basic knowledge about these awards. Nobel prizes were issued to the fields in physics, chemistry, physiology, literature and peace but had not included computer science. It is important to acknowledge ones work by appreciating through awards. It motivates the person to contribute his work to the society. Since Turing awards are considered as equivalent to Nobel Prize, one would work hard to achieve it. It is an honor to get the Turing award. I would love to end this post by saying more Indians must contribute in the field of computer science and have there names on list of Turing award winners.
