CRA awards presented to Katz and Lawler

The Computing Research Association recently announced the recipients of the 1995 CRA Distinguished Service Award and the CRA Nico Habermann Award.

Randy Katz was selected as the winner of the 1995 CRA Distinguished Service Award. He was honored for the outstanding contributions he made to promote the National Information Infrastructure and the High-Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) program during his tenure with the Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Katz was program manager and deputy director in ARPA's Computing Systems Technology Office from January 1993 to December 1994. He participated in Vice President Gore's National Performance Review and the Defense Department's Technology Reinvestment Project. As co-chair of the White House Information Technology Task Force, he was responsible for putting the White House on the Internet and establishing the president@whitehouse.gov E-mail address.

He played a major role in developing ARPA's HPCC Implementation Plan, co-chaired the HPCC Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications Working Group and edited the IITA report that defined the research activities and opportunities in the HPCC arena. He was a key player in the effort to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on Information and Communications (CIC) and was instrumental in crafting major portions of the plan.

Katz is professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, where he also serves as chair of the MICRO (Microelectronics and Computing Research Opportunities) Program Executive Committee for the State of California.

The 1995 CRA Nico Habermann Award will be presented to the family of the late Eugene Lawler for the outstanding contributions he made to promote the entry of female, minority, disadvantaged and disabled students into graduate research programs in computer science at the University of California at Berkeley.

As professor of computer science at Berkeley, Lawler played a major role in the establishment and operation of Berkeley's Computer Science Re-entry Program. This program, which was established in the 1980s and was one of the first of its kind, made it possible for underrepresented students trained in other fields to prepare themselves for graduate studies in computer science. Lawler was the first faculty chair for the Re-entry Program and served for four years in that capacity.

Lawler promoted admissions of women and ethnic minorities into the graduate program and made recruiting trips to the Southwest on behalf of Chicano recruitment. His advocacy efforts on behalf of women, minorities and disabled students extended beyond Berkeley to the National Science Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was videotaped for the AAAS Access to Engineering Project, which was designed to encourage disabled students to aim for engineering careers. He worked with the Berkeley Disabled Students Center to try to obtain reading aids for blind students.

But his efforts went beyond admissions, to mentoring and advising. He carefully followed his students to make sure they found a research adviser and received financial support. He gave generously of his time, counseling students with patience, good sense and wisdom.

A comprehensive list of awards that members of the computing research community may be eligible for can be accessed through the World Wide Web at http://www.cra.org/awards.