The Computing Research Association

^{∫ archives ∫}A. Nico Habermann Award

CRA makes this award, usually annually, to a person who has made outstanding contributions aimed at increasing the numbers and/or successes of underrepresented groups in the computing research community. This award recognizes work in areas of government affairs, educational programs, professional societies, public awareness, and leadership that has a major impact on advancing these groups in the computing research community. Recognized contributions can be focused directly at the research level or at its immediate precursors, namely students at the undergraduate or graduate levels.

¹⁹⁹⁹Sheila Humphreys

1999 Habermann Award Awardee Academic Coordinator for Student Matters, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley

Sheila Humphreys has been selected to receive the 1999 A. Nico Habermann Award. Dr. Humphreys is currently the Academic Coordinator for Student Matters, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. For the past twenty years, she has worked as a mentor and advocate for students from under-represented groups in computer science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sheila Humphreys founded and subsequently coordinated the Berkeley Computer Science Reentry Program in 1983, which became a model for programs to prepare women with non-traditional backgrounds for graduate study in Computer Science. In 1985, she initiated and organized the Excellence and Diversity Program in the Berkeley ECE Department to recruit and mentor graduate students, with an emphasis on underrepresented groups. Since 1990 she has worked with ECE graduate students to initiate and direct the Summer Undergraduate Program in Engineering Research (SUPERB) at Berkeley, an undergraduate research and mentoring program targeting underrepresented students which has been used as a model by other departments.

Sheila Humphreys is currently initiating a local science fair and an Internet-based information system to help local high school students prepare for admission to UC Berkeley under new Proposition 209 guidelines.

CRA’s overall Awards Committee is chaired by Dan Reed (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign). He also chairs the Distinguished Service Award committee with members Fran Berman (University of California, San Diego) and Richard Muntz (University of California, Los Angeles). Corky Cartwright (Rice University) is chair of the Habermann Award Committee, with members Richard Tapia (Rice University) and Valerie Taylor (Northwestern University).

More biographical information can be found at Sheila Humphrey’s homepage at UC, Berkeley.