¹⁹⁹¹David Gries

Taulbee Survey, CRA

In 1985, Professor Gries was one of the key authors of the trends report, “Imbalance between growth and funding in academic computing science: two trends colliding,” a report that successfully predicted the upturn in computer science Ph.D. production and documented the special research funding problems a growing academic discipline was having in the face of limited research funding. This report marked a turning point in the computer science and engineering community’s understanding that it must give increased attention to national science policy issues.

Professor Gries is also known for his dedicated work since 1985 in making the Taulbee Survey a comprehensive and reliable annual survey of Ph.D. production, faculty salaries, and faculty hiring in Ph.D. granting departments in computer science and engineering. Under his management the Taulbee Survey had come to have essentially complete coverage of these departments in the US, making it both a valuable resource for dealing with the growth of computing research and an accurate historical record of that growth.

Finally, Professor Gries deserves special mention for the inauguration of the CRA news journal, Computing Research News. He served as chair of CRA’s editorial board from the inception of the news journal until mid 1990. More than any other board member of the Computing Research Association, Gries saw the need for such a journal and gave unstintingly of his time and his direction to the development of CRNews.