Catherine Cole McGeoch is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

specializing in empirical algorithmics and heuristics for

NP-hard In computational complexity theory, NP-hardness ( non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness) is the defining property of a class of problems that are informally "at least as hard as the hardest problems in NP". A simple example of an NP-hard pr ...

problems. She is currently Beitzel Professor in Technology and Society at Amherst College. She has been the Editor in Chief of ''ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics'' and was a member of the

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

Publications Board.

Biography

McGeoch graduated summa cum laude from

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communi ...

in 1981. She then earned her M.S. (1983) and her Ph.D.(1986) from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, supervised by Jon Bentley. She is the author of ''A Guide to Experimental Algorithmics'' () and ''Adiabatic Quantum Computation and Quantum Annealing: Theory and Practice'' (). In 2013, she published one of the first detailed benchmarks of D-Wave's Quantum Computer versus conventional software. Her work was featured in an Amherst College press release and was subsequently cited in numerous media outlets, including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...

'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

''. Starting in May 2014 she took a leave of absence from Amherst College to work full-time for D-Wave.

References

Butler University alumni Carnegie Mellon University alumni 21st-century American women writers American computer scientists American women computer scientists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{compu-scientist-stub