ACM HONORS DR. JOHN M. CHAMBERS OF BELL LABS WITH THE 1998 ACM SOFTWARE SYSTEM AWARD FOR CREATING "S SYSTEM" SOFTWARE
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) named Dr. John M. Chambers of Bell Labs as the recipient of the 1998 Software System Award for developing the S System, an innovative software program that helps users to manage and extract useful information from data.
The ACM's citation notes that Dr. Chambers' work "forever altered the way people analyze, visualize, and manipulate data . . . S is an elegant, widely accepted, and enduring software system, with conceptual integrity, thanks to the insight, taste, and effort of John Chambers."
The System Software Award recognizes those who develop software systems having a lasting influence. Software systems recognized by previous awards have included such cornerstones of modern computing as the Unix operating system, the World Wide Web, TCP/IP, and the Postscript language. The award will be presented on May 15, 1999 during a special ACM awards banquet in New York City, and will be accompanied by a $10,000 prize. Financial support is provided by IBM.
About The "S System"
The S system, like the Unix operating system, originated from the research area of Lucent technology's Bell Labs. It evolved over a period of twenty years to be the medium for much of modern data visualization and analysis, used widely in research and in applications from medicine to manufacturing quality.
The first versions of S in the 1970s pioneered the use of data visualization and interactive statistical computing. Subsequent versions provided richly enhanced modeling capability, and user extensibility, based on its functional object-based approach.
Still more recent versions provide a powerful class/method structure, new techniques to deal with large objects, extended interfaces to other languages and files, object-based documentation compatible with HTML, and powerful interactive programming techniques. The commercial version, S-Plus, is used across many disciplines where analysts must struggle with creative ways to manage and extract useful information from data. More information about "S" is available at http://cm.bell-labs.com/stat/S/index.html.
John Chambers has been a member of technical staff in research at Bell Laboratories since 1966. In 1997, he became the first statistician to be named a Bell Labs Fellow, cited for "pioneering contributions to the field of statistical computing." His research has touched on nearly all aspects of computing with data but he is best known for the design (and continuing re-design) of the S language. From 1981-83 he was head of the Advanced Software Department, and from 1983-88 head of the Data Analysis and Statistics Research Department.
He is the author or co-author of seven books on S, on computational methods, and on graphical methods, most recently Programming with Data: A Guide to the S Language, published in 1998. His professional activities have included being president of the International Association for Statistical Computing and various offices in the ISI, ASA and AAAS. He is a fellow of ASA and AAAS, and a member of ISI. At Bell Labs, he served as head of the advanced software department and the statistics and data analysis research department, before returning to full-time research in 1989. He continues active research on computing with data, with many plans for the future of S and related projects.
Dr. Chambers obtained his Ph. D. in statistics in 1966 from Harvard University, after receiving a B. Sc. degree in mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1963 and an M.A. in statistics from Harvard in 1965.
About The ACM
ACM is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership by delivering cutting-edge information and by transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM, with its world class journals and magazines, dynamic special interest groups, numerous conferences, workshops and forums is a primary resource to the IT field. For more information about the ACM, visit our web site.
[ ACM Press Releases | More info on S | Statistics Research, Bell Labs ]