Alexia Massalin (formerly Henry Massalin) is an American computer scientist and programmer. She pioneered the concept of

superoptimization Superoptimization is the process where a compiler automatically finds the optimal sequence for a loop-free sequence of instructions. Real-world compilers generally cannot produce genuinely ''optimal'' code, and while most standard compiler optimi ...

, and designed the ''

Synthesis kernel In computer science, self-modifying code (SMC or SMoC) is code that alters its own instructions while it is executing – usually to reduce the instruction path length and improve performance or simply to reduce otherwise repetitively simil ...

'', a small kernel with a

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

compatibility layer that makes heavy use of

self-modifying code In computer science, self-modifying code (SMC or SMoC) is source code, code that alters its own instruction (computer science), instructions while it is execution (computing), executing – usually to reduce the instruction path length and imp ...

for efficiency.

Life and career

After high school, she was given a scholarship to the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

School of Engineering in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, where she obtained a bachelor's and master's degree. She went to obtain her Ph.D. in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1992, studying under professor Calton Pu. In the 1980s she worked for Philon Inc., a New York start up specializing in optimizing compilers. In October 1992, Massalin joined MicroUnity as a research scientist, where she became responsible for signal-processing modules and software architecture.

''Synthesis''

Massalin's first breakthrough product came while studying at Columbia. Massalin developed ''Synthesis'', an operating system kernel that allocated resources, ran security and low-level hardware interfaces, and created executable code to improve performance. Synthesis optimized critical operating system code using run-time information, which was a new insight previously thought impractical. To support ''Synthesis'', Massalin invented object-like data structures called

Quaject In computer science, a quaject is an object-like data structure containing both data and code (or pointers to code), exposed as an interface in the form of '' callentries'', and can accept a list of callentries to other quajects for ''callbacks'' a ...

s, which contain both data and code information. Massalin is still working on broadband microprocessors.

Personal life

Her parents were

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n refugees from

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

. In the 1940s, they moved to

Astoria, Queens Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to four other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Queens, Long Island C ...

, New York, where her father became a construction worker. In a 1996 article in ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' magazine, the author

Gary Andrew Poole Gary Andrew Poole is an American journalist and author. He has written for ''The New York Times'', ''The Atlantic'', ''Esquire'' and ''Time''. Books Poole is the author of ''The Galloping Ghost: Red Grange, An American Football Legend'' (Hough ...

said she "could be the Einstein of our time." She was well known for offering piggyback rides to people she met, which included notable computer scientists such as

Dennis Ritchie Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – October 12, 2011) was an American computer scientist. He created the C programming language and the Unix operating system and B language with long-time colleague Ken Thompson. Ritchie and Thomp ...

Ken Thompson Kenneth Lane Thompson (born February 4, 1943) is an American pioneer of computer science. Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B (programmi ...

, and artificial intelligence pioneer

Marvin Minsky Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive scientist, cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research in artificial intelligence (AI). He co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...

References

Living people American transgender women American women computer scientists American people of Croatian descent Columbia University alumni Transgender scientists 1962 births 21st-century American LGBTQ people American LGBTQ scientists {{Compu-scientist-stub