Williams Named Distinguished Scientist

Dr. Laurie Williams, professor of computer science, has been honored as a 2011 Distinguished Scientist by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The designation is for members with at least 15 years of professional experience who have had a significant impact on the computing field. Recipients include computer scientists and engineers from some of the world’s leading corporations, research labs and universities.

Williams’ research focuses on software security, particularly in relation to healthcare IT; agile software development practices and processes; software reliability, software testing and analysis; open source software development; and broadening participation and increasing retention in computer science.

Williams leads the Software Engineering Realsearch research group at NC State. She is the senior research director of the Institute of Next Generation Systems, director of the NC State Laboratory for Collaborative System Development and the software engineering area representative for the Secure Open Systems Initiative.

Williams won a National Science Foundation Career Award. She received the university’s Outstanding Teaching Award and is a member of NC State’s Academy of Outstanding Teachers.