Mary Wolcott Hall is an American computer scientist specializing in

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...

s and

automatic parallelization Automatic parallelization, also auto parallelization, or autoparallelization refers to converting sequential code into multi-threaded and/or vectorized code in order to use multiple processors simultaneously in a shared-memory multiprocessor ( S ...

. She is director of the Kahlert School of Computing at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

Education and career

Hall's mother, a mathematics teacher, passed on her interest in computers to her daughter. Hall became an undergraduate at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, originally majoring in computer science and managerial studies but switching to Rice's program in computer science and mathematical sciences, from which she graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

in 1985. She continued at Rice for graduate study in computer science, earning a master's degree in 1989 and completing her Ph.D. in 1991. Her dissertation, ''Managing Interprocedural Optimization'', was supervised by Ken Kennedy. She writes of this time "I only wanted to write a masters thesis and do some research, and I tried to quit twice, but each time Ken Kennedy talked me out of it." After postdoctoral research at

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 ...

, a visiting assistant professorship at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, and a research faculty position at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, she obtained a regular-rank associate professorship at the

in 2008, and was promoted to full professor in 2012. She was named director of the Kahlert School of Computing in 2020.

Recognition

Hall was named an

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

, in the 2020 class of fellows, "for contributions to compiler optimization and performance tuning".

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Mary Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists American women computer scientists Rice University alumni University of Utah faculty Fellows of the IEEE