Barbara Liskov (born November 7, 1939, as Barbara Jane Huberman) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

who has made pioneering contributions to

programming languages A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their syntax (form) and semantics (meaning), usually defined by a formal language. Languages usually provide features ...

and

distributed computing Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

. Her notable work includes the introduction of

abstract data type In computer science, an abstract data type (ADT) is a mathematical model for data types, defined by its behavior (semantics) from the point of view of a '' user'' of the data, specifically in terms of possible values, possible operations on data ...

s and the accompanying principle of data abstraction, along with the Liskov substitution principle, which applies these ideas to

object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impl ...

subtyping In programming language theory, subtyping (also called subtype polymorphism or inclusion polymorphism) is a form of type polymorphism. A ''subtype'' is a datatype that is related to another datatype (the ''supertype'') by some notion of substi ...

, and

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

. Her work was recognized with the 2008

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

, the highest distinction in computer science. Liskov is one of the earliest women to have been granted a doctorate in computer science in the United States, and the second woman to receive the Turing award. She is currently an Institute Professor and Ford Professor of Engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

.Barbara Liskov
Programming Methodology Group, MIT.

Early life and education

Liskov was born November 7, 1939, in Los Angeles, California, the eldest of Jane (née Dickhoff) and Moses Huberman's four children. She earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics with a minor in physics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1961. At Berkeley, she had only one other female classmate in her major. She applied to graduate mathematics programs at Berkeley and Princeton. At the time Princeton was not accepting female students in mathematics. She was accepted at Berkeley but instead moved to Boston and began working at

Mitre Corporation The Mitre Corporation (stylized as The MITRE Corporation and MITRE) is an American not-for-profit organization with dual headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia. It manages federally funded research and development centers ...

, where she became interested in computers and programming. She worked at Mitre for one year before taking a programming job at Harvard working on language translation. She then decided to go back to school and applied again to Berkeley, but also to Stanford and Harvard. In March 1968 she became one of the first women in the United States to be awarded a Ph.D. from a computer science department when she was awarded her degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. At Stanford, she worked with John McCarthy and was supported to work in

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. The topic of her Ph.D. thesis was a computer program to play

chess endgame The endgame (or ending) is the final stage of a chess game which occurs after the middlegame. It begins when few pieces are left on the board. The line between the middlegame and the endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with ...

s for which she developed the important killer heuristic.

Career

After graduating from Stanford, Liskov returned to Mitre to work as research staff. Liskov has led many significant projects, including the Venus operating system, a small, low-cost timesharing system; the design and implementation of CLU; Argus, the first high-level language to support implementation of distributed programs and to demonstrate the technique of promise pipelining; and Thor, an object-oriented database system. With Jeannette Wing, she developed a particular definition of

, commonly known as the Liskov substitution principle. She leads the Programming Methodology Group at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, with a current research focus in

Byzantine fault tolerance A Byzantine fault is a condition of a system, particularly a distributed computing system, where a fault occurs such that different symptoms are presented to different observers, including imperfect information on whether a system component has fa ...

and

. She was on the inaugural Engineering and Computer Science jury for the Infosys Prize in 2009.

Recognition and awards

Liskov is a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

, the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

and of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

(ACM). In 2002, she was recognized as one of the top women faculty members at MIT, and among the top 50 faculty members in the sciences in the U.S. In 2002, '' Discover'' magazine recognized Liskov as one of the 50 most important women in science. In 2004, Barbara Liskov won the John von Neumann Medal for "fundamental contributions to programming languages, programming methodology, and

distributed systems Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different computer network, networked computers. The components of a distribu ...

". On 19 November 2005, Barbara Liskov and Donald E. Knuth were awarded ETH Honorary Doctorates. Liskov and Knuth were also featured in the ETH Zurich Distinguished Colloquium Series. She was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Lugano in 2011 and by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2018. Liskov received the 2008

from the ACM in March 2009, for her work in the design of programming languages and software methodology that led to the development of

.Barbara Liskov Wins Turing Award , March 10, 2009
from the Dr. Dobb's Journal website Specifically, Liskov developed two programming languages, CLU in the 1970s and Argus in the 1980s. The ACM cited her contributions to the practical and theoretical foundations of "programming language and system design, especially related to data abstraction,

fault tolerance Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to maintain proper operation despite failures or faults in one or more of its components. This capability is essential for high-availability, mission-critical, or even life-critical systems. Fault t ...

, and

". In 2012 she was inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

. In 2023 Liskov was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute for "seminal contributions to computer programming languages and methodology, enabling the implementation of reliable, reusable programs".

Selected works

Liskov is the author of five books as of February 2023 and over one hundred technical papers.

Books

* * * *

Selected papers

* * * * * *

Personal life

Liskov is Jewish. In 1970, she married Nathan Liskov. They have one son, Moses, who earned a PhD in computer science from MIT in 2004 and teaches computer science at the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

References

External links

Prof. Liskov's home page

Programming Methodology Group

Interview in Quanta magazine
* Tom Van Vleck
Barbara Liskov
A.M. Turing Award Winner
National Public Radio "Science Friday" interview with Barbara Liskov, originally aired on 13 Mar 2009
*
Celebrating Women of Distinction, Barbara Liskov, Turing Award interview by
Stephen Ibaraki * Prof. Liskov summarizes her career and offers advice to young women engineers
--> * John V. Guttag
Barbara Liskov
''The Electron and The Bit: EECS at MIT, 1902–2002'', Chapter VII: "Pioneering Women in EECS", pp. 225–239, 2003, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
Barbara Liskov named Institute Professor
MIT News, July 1, 2008
Department News: Barbara Liskov named Institute Professor
, EECS Newsletter, Fall 2008 * Natasha Plotkin

''The Tech'' (MIT), 128,29, July 9, 2008 * Robert Weisman
Top prize in computing goes to MIT professor
''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', March 10, 2009 * Erica Naone
Driven to Abstraction
''MIT Technology Review'', December 21, 2009
Barbara Liskov
at the Chess programming wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Liskov, Barbara Living people 1939 births American computer scientists American women academics American women computer scientists 20th-century American women inventors Jewish American scientists Jewish women scientists Programming language designers Programming language researchers Researchers in distributed computing Software engineering researchers University of California, Berkeley alumni 1996 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science laureates Turing Award laureates MIT School of Engineering faculty Stanford University School of Engineering alumni 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American engineers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women scientists