Christiane Floyd (née Riedl; born 26 April 1943) is an Austrian computer scientist. In 1978, she accomplished becoming the very first female professor of computer science in Germany, and was a pioneer of evolutionary participatory software design—a precursor to open-source software development.[1]

Christiane Floyd
Floyd speaking at a conference at the HTW Berlin on 31 March 2015
Born
Christiane Riedl

(1943-04-26) 26 April 1943 (age 81)
Vienna, Austria
NationalityAustrian
Alma materUniversity of Vienna
SpousesRobert W. Floyd
Peter Naur
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
InstitutionsUniversity of Hamburg
Technische Universität Berlin
Softlab
Stanford University
Siemens
Thesis Radikale für Fastmoduln, Fastringe und Kompositionsringe  (1966)
Doctoral advisorWilfried Nöbauer

Biography

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Born Christiane Riedl, she began her career studying mathematics at the University of Vienna, where she completed her PhD in 1966. From 1966 to 1968, she worked as a systems programmer using an ALGOL 60 compiler at Siemens in Munich, Germany. From 1968 to 1973, she worked at the computer science department of Stanford University in the United States as a research associate and part-time lecturer.[2]

In 1973, she joined the Munich software development company Softlab, where she worked as a senior consultant and was involved in the development and demonstration of Maestro I,[3] the first integrated development environment for software.[2]

In 1978, Floyd became a full professor of software engineering at Technische Universität Berlin[4]—the first woman to be a professor in the field of computer science in Germany.[1] From 1991, she was head of the software engineering group at the University of Hamburg.[2] Floyd and her group produced one of the first conceptual contributions to participatory design methods with the STEPS process model (Software Technology for Evolutionary Participatory Systems development).[5] Floyd formally retired and became a professor emerita at Hamburg in 2008. She has since been involved with the Vienna University of Technology WIT project (Wissenschaftlerinnenkolleg Internettechnologien; Women's Postgraduate College for Internet Technologies), which offers a specialised PhD program for women in the computer science field. Floyd was granted an honorary professorship at TU Wien on 26 January 2012.[6]

She was married to Robert W. Floyd and Peter Naur — both computer scientists.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b Thumfart, Johannes (29 March 2011). "Christiane Floyd: Emanzipation durch Computer". Die Zeit. Retrieved 4 January 2016. (in German)
  2. ^ a b c "Prof. Dr. Christiane Floyd, University of Hamburg". Archived from the original on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ 2011 EUSSET-IISI Lifetime Achievement Award to Christiane Floyd Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, EUSSET (2011).
  4. ^ a b Von Randow, Von Gero (20 November 1992). "Frau im Widerspruch". Die Zeit. Retrieved 4 January 2016. (in German)
  5. ^ Simonsen, Jesper (2012). Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design. Routledge. p. 121. ISBN 978-1136266256.
  6. ^ "Ehre wem Ehre gebührt!". TU Wien. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
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