Mary Jean Harrold (1947-2013)

Mary Jean Harrold, professor in the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer at the age of 66. Mary Jean was a leader in software engineering and our Aristotle Research Group that focused on automating development, testing and maintenance tasks for large software systems. An 2007 CACM article ranked her as the top software engineering researcher in the world.

Mary Jean also was a trailblazer for women in computer science, fighting societal norms to establish her own career. Mary Jean had leadership roles in CRA-W, NCWIT and was an ADVANCE professor at Georgia Tech, always fighting for the status of women in computer science and beyond.

On Monday, we had a strong contingent of faculty, staff, students and alumni travel the 340 miles to Huntington, West Virginia for Mary Jean's funeral. Virtually all the current software engineering PhD students, Mary Jean's PhD advisor Mary Lou Soffa and several of Mary Jean's former students including a few who traveled on short notice from the west coast. Mary Jean had a profound effect on the students and others that she worked with.

Georgia Tech is planning a memorial service as well as a scholarship fund in her name. Watch for details.

Some links:

• Family Tribute Page
• CACM Memorial
• IEEE Computer Society
• Dick Lipton
• Gene Spafford 
• Eli Tilevich
• Hina Shah