New York, NY, March 15, 2006 - The Association for Computing Machinery's Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W) has named Deborah Estrin as the first Athena Lecturer. The recognition celebrates women researchers who have made fundamental contributions to Computer Science. Estrin, a professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, holds the Jon Postel Chair in Computer Networks. She is founding director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center for Embedded Networked Sensing. Her recent research has focused on the design and application of wirelesss sensor networks. The 2006-2007 Athena Lecturer Award will be presented at the ACM annual Awards Banquet, May 20, at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.

Since the late 90's Professor Estrin has collaborated with colleagues and students to develop protocols and systems architectures needed to build sensor networks, rapidly-deployable and robustly-operating networks of physically-embedded devices. She is particularly interested in the application of these embedded sensors for environmental monitoring.

Estrin has played a leading role in the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a national -scale research and education platform that addresses some of the most complex environmental challenges before the nation. She serves on two advisory committees for NSF: the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), and the Environmental Research and Education(ERE) Directorates. She was recently selected to join the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Academies.

Estrin is an associate editor of ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks. She has served as an editor for ACM/IEEE Transactions on Networks, and was general co-chair for the first ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (Sensys 2003).

As part of the Athena Lecturer project, the recipient is invited to present a lecture at an ACM event. Estrin will address the MobiCom 2006 Conference in Los Angeles, which runs from September 23-29. MobiCom, the International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, is sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Mobility of Systems, Users, Data, and Computing (SIGMOBILE).

Each year, the Athena Lecturer honors a preeminent woman computer scientist. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom. With her knowledge, sense of purpose, and willingness to enter the fray, she epitomizes the strength, determination, and intelligence of the "Athena Lecturers."

About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery http://www.acm.org, is an educational and scientific society uniting the world's computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.