Dr. Jennifer L. Welch, Regents Professor and Chevron Professor II in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, is the editor of the ACM SIGACT News distributed computing column. Welch succeeds Professor Idit Keidar of the Israel Institute of Technology who held the position from 2007 to 2013. The Distributed Computing Columns have been published since December 2000 and were originally edited by Professor Sergio Rajsbaum of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (ACM SIGACT) is an international organization that fosters and promotes the discovery and dissemination of high quality research in theoretical computer science, the formal analysis of efficient computation and computational processes. It also recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field in research and service. SIGACT started publication of its newsletter in 1969 and now publishes it quarterly in print and electronic form.
"The success of the column is thanks to the contributions by guest authors," Welch said.
She encourages authors to submit tutorials, reviews of events related to distributed computing, or provide new insights on well-studied topics by organizing them in new ways.
Since 1992, Welch has been a faculty member of the department. Before joining Texas A&M, Welch had been an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, a member of the technical staffs of GTE Laboratories, Inc. and AT&T Bell Laboratories, and also a programmer for Sipes, Williamson & Associates and Tracor, Inc. She received a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Texas in 1979 and her master's and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and 1988, respectively.
Her research approach encompasses formal models, algorithm design and analysis, and lower bounds and impossibility proofs. Recently she has applied some of her research ideas to mobile ad hoc networks, metamorphic robot systems, and randomized distributed data structures. She is the author of over 100 refereed publications and the co-author of a respected textbook in the field, "Distributed Computing: Fundamentals, Simulations and Advanced Topics."
Among the many awards she has received is the ACM Distinguished Scientist award, the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching, and the IEEE Education Society Hewlett-Packard Harriet B. Rigas Award for outstanding woman engineering educator. She has participated in Texas A&M's Women's Faculty Network mentoring program and has mentored numerous junior faculty. Welch is the Faculty Ombudsperson Officer for Dwight Look College of Engineering, a two-year appointment she received in the fall of 2013.