Anita Katherine Jones (born March 10, 1942) is an American computer scientist and former U.S. government official. She was

Director, Defense Research and Engineering The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, abbreviated USD (R&E), is a senior official of the United States Department of Defense. The USD (R&E) is charged with the development and oversight of technology strategy for the DoD. T ...

from 1993 to 1997. Jones was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

(1994) for contributions to the theory and implementation of software systems and for extensive public service.

Early life

Jones' father, a petroleum engineer, encouraged her to pursue a career that would make a difference in the world. He taught her to play chess, helped her on geometry problems, and on weekends took her and her younger brother fishing for catfish, red snapper, and trout on Galveston Bay. Jones' mother, who had trained as a ballerina and danced in several Hollywood films, taught her daughter a love of painting. Born in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

and raised in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

,Schrof, Joannie M.
"Keeping Up With Anita Jones"
, ''PRISM'', University of Virginia, February 1, 1999 Anita graduated as valedictorian of her high school class in 1960.

Education

Jones received an A.B. from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

in Mathematics in 1964, a Master of Arts in English Literature from the

University of Texas, Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

in 1973. While at Carnegie Mellon, she met her future husband, William A. Wulf.

Career

Jones remained at Carnegie Mellon as an assistant professor, with promotion to associate professor in 1978. With William A. Wulf, her husband, Jones was a founder and vice president of

Tartan Laboratories Tartan Laboratories, Inc., later renamed Tartan, Inc., was an American software company founded in 1981 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that specialized in programming language compilers, especially for the language Ada. It was based on wor ...

, a compiler technology company, in 1981. The company was later sold to Texas Instruments. She joined the faculty of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

in 1989, but took leave in June 1993 to become the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the U.S. Department of Defense, a position in which she was responsible for the management of the science and technology program. Her responsibilities included the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

and oversight of the Department of Defense laboratories, as well as being the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for defense-related scientific and technical matters. At the time, it was the highest technical job ever held by a woman in the Department of Defense. She returned to the University of Virginia in 1997. In the field of computer software systems and cyber-security, Dr. Jones has published more than 40 technical articles and two books. Among other things, she gave the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO) the task of “assuring interoperability and reusability of defense models and simulations" which led to DMSO formulating a vision for modeling and simulation and establishing a modeling and simulation masterplan, including the

High Level Architecture The High Level Architecture (HLA) is a standard for distributed simulation, used when building a simulation for a larger purpose by combining (federating) several simulations. The standard was developed in the 1990s under the leadership of the US ...

. In 2010 she officially retired but remains involved in the university and continues to mentor young women in technical fields. She is on the Board of Trustees for

In-Q-Tel In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It invests in high-tech companies to keep the Central Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies, equipped with ...

which "is the not-for-profit strategic investor that accelerates the development and delivery of cutting-edge technologies to national security agencies."

Board memberships

Since 2004, Jones has been a member of the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Corporation. From 1988 to 1992, she was a trustee of the MITRE Corporation. She is a member of * the

* the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

and * the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

National Science Board The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President and the Congress. The NSB also serves as an ind ...

. *the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

She has been a member of the Computing Community Consortium "since its inception."

Awards

Jones received the

Augusta Ada Lovelace Award The Ada Lovelace Award is given in honor of the English mathematician and computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, by the Association for Women in Computing. Founded in 1981, as the ''Service Award'', which was given to Thelma Estrin Thelma Estrin ( ...

from the Association of Women in Computing in 2004. She is also the recipient of the

Computing Research Association The Computing Research Association (CRA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit association of North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia enga ...

's Service Award, the Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award, and the Department of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service. The U.S. Navy has named a seamount in the North Pacific Ocean (51° 25’ N and 159° 10’ W) for her. In 2007 she was the recipient of the

IEEE Founders Medal The IEEE Founders Medal is an award is presented for outstanding contributions in the leadership, planning, and administration of affairs of great value to the electrical and electronics engineering profession. It may be presented to an individual ...

. Jones was also awarded the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS)'s 2012 Philip Hauge Abelson award.

References

* Forbes.com Profiles
"Anita K. Jones"
* Carnegie Mellon University, {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Anita 1942 births Living people People from Fort Worth, Texas Educators from Houston Rice University alumni University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni Carnegie Mellon University alumni American computer scientists American women computer scientists Carnegie Mellon University faculty University of Virginia faculty Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense Members of the American Philosophical Society