Jeanne Ferrante

Jeanne Ferrante (born January 3, 1949) is an American computer scientist active in the field of compiler technology. As a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, Ferrante has made important contributions regarding optimization and parallelization.

Early life and education Ferrante was born on January 3, 1949. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in natural sciences from Hofstra University in 1969 and her PhD in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974. During her undergraduate studies, Ferrante originally wished to pursue a career as a high school chemistry teacher but was encouraged by a female professor to pursue a career in mathematics.

Career Following her PhD, Ferrante taught at Tufts University until 1978 when she became a Research Staff Member at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. While with IBM, she worked on computational complexity problems such as the theory of rational order and first order theory of real addition. In the 1980s, Ferrante collaborated with various researchers at IBM to develop the Static Single Assignment form (SSA). The SSA is a data structure that allows for more efficient methods of transforming the user's program to machine code. Ferrante was later recognized for her collaborative work with the SSA form by the Association for Computing Machinery with their 2006 SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award.

Upon joining the faculty of UCSD, Ferrante served as the Computer Science and Engineering Department Chair from 1996 to 1999 and Associate Dean of Engineering from 2002 to 2013. As UCSD's Associate Dean, Ferrante focused on developing programs to encourage women to pursue careers in science. In 2004, she founded the Teams in Engineering Service (TIES) program which matches UCSD undergraduates with San Diego non-profit organizations to "solve technology-based problems for their community clients." In the same year, Ferrante was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for her "contributions to optimizing and parallelizing compilers." She subsequently became one of the only UCSD academics to hold fellowships simultaneously in IEEE and the ACM. As a result of her efforts, Ferrante received the 2007 Athena Educator Pinnacle Award. In this role, Ferrante was one of three faculty members to receive a 2012 Diversity Award for their efforts to promote diversity and equity on the UCSD campus.

Ferrante remained active within the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering until 2014 when she became a professor Emeritus.