ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery), the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals, will introduce 15 leading computer scientists from academia and industry who are spearheading ACM Europe, a new effort to recognize and support European members and ACM activities in Europe.  These leaders have joined the newly formed ACM Europe Council to expand ACM’s high-quality technical activities, conferences, and services in the European region.  Director of External Research Programs for Microsoft Research Europe Fabrizio Gagliardi chairs the Council, which will host a special event in Paris on October 8, in conjunction with the European Computer Science Summit, sponsored by Informatics Europe.  A reception at the event will also honor the achievements of European computer scientists and recognize European winners of ACM’s A.M. Turing Award as well as other ACM award winners and ACM Fellows.  

            “Our goal is to share ACM’s vast array of valued resources and services on a global scale,” said ACM President Professor Dame Wendy Hall.  “We want to discover the work and welcome the talent from all corners of the computing arena so that we are better positioned to appreciate the key issues and challenges within Europe’s academic, research, and professional computing communities and respond accordingly. For us, ACM Europe is about seeing leading European computer scientists shape and enhance what ACM does in Europe and for Europe.”  

            Today’s ACM European contingent includes more than 15,000 members and over 100 chapters as well as an ever-growing number of ACM-sponsored conferences and symposia.  The ACM Europe Council will serve this growing constituency by increasing the number of chapters, particularly for students; expanding interest in nominations for the many ACM professional awards and distinguished member grades; and engaging ACM’s Special Interest Groups to focus on Europe when planning conferences and major events.            

            ACM Europe Council Chair Gagliardi hailed the intent of ACM’s European initiative to illuminate the role of computing in driving innovation in a global environment.  “By strengthening ACM’s ties in the region and raising awareness of its many benefits and resources with the public and European decision-makers, we can play an active role in the critical technical, educational, and social issues that surround the computing community,” he said. 

            The roots of ACM’s European community go back more than 50 years.  Among the services available to its nearly 95,000 worldwide members is the ACM Digital Library, the most comprehensive resource for exploring the accumulated knowledge in the computing field.  ACM also publishes more than 45 technical journals and magazines on a broad range of computing-related topics.  In addition, ACM’s 34 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) cover major aspects of computing technology and conduct explorations of specific issues and problems.  ACM SIG Conferences offer opportunities to join respected peers from organizations around the world in exploring promising solutions to pressing social and economic problems. 

ACM Europe Council Members:

• Fabrizio Gagliardi, Director of External Research Programs, Microsoft Research Europe (Chair)
• Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, Universite Paris-Sud, France
• Wendy Hall, University of Southampton, UK (and ACM President)
• Thomas Hofmann, Google EMEA, Zurich, Switzerland
• Gabriele Kotsis, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria
• Jan van Leeuwen, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• Andrew McGettrick, University of Strathclyde, Scotland
• Avi Mendelson, Microsoft Research, Israel
• Bertrand Meyer, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• Burkhard Neidecker-Lutz,  Research Division, SAP AG, Germany
• Gerhard Schimpf, Chair, German ACM Chapter, Pforzheim, Germany
• Marc Shapiro, INRIA and LIP6, France
• Paul Spirakis, University of Patras and the Greek Computer Technologies Institute, Greece
• Mateo Valero, Technical University of Catalonia, Spain 
• Alexander Wolf, Department of Computing, Imperial College London, UK