Two Women Scholars Honored With the National Medal of Technology and Innovation

The White House has announced the names of this year’s winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The awards were created by an act of Congress and are administered by the Patent and Trademark Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The award recognizes individuals who have made “lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce.” Eight medals will be awarded later this year at a White House ceremony. Three women are among the recipients, including two with current ties to the academic world.

Cherry A. Murray is the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, professor of physics, and dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is the former associate director for science and technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and is past president of the American Physical Society.

Professor Murray holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mary Shaw is the Alan J. Perlis University Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She has been on the university’s faculty since 1971. In addition to her appointment in the department of computer science, Professor Shaw is affiliated with the Institute for Software Research and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. During her tenure at the university, she has served as chief scientist of Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute and as associate dean for professional education.

Professor Shaw is a graduate of Rice University in Houston. She earned a Ph.D. in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University