Professor Valerie Barr

Since September 2004 she has been Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Union College, Schenectady, New York. Before going to Union, she was a tenured Associate Professor at Hofstra University. She received her B.A. in Applied Mathematics in 1977 from Mount Holyoke College, in 1979 a Masters in Computer Science from New York University, and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University in 1996. Between receiving her Masters and Ph.D. degrees, she worked in industry on applications such as automated blood analyzers, automated storage and retrieval machines, and banking back office operations. Her current research is in the area of software testing, focusing on the development of verification and validation methods and tools for natural language processing systems. She is also involved in curriculum development, chiefly the creation of interdisciplinary programs between Computer Science and the humanities and social sciences, with a goal of changing the demographics of enrollments in computer science classes. She directs ACM-W's Scholarships for Attendance at Research Conferences program.