Elizabeth DuRoss Liddy is an Emeritus Professor of

Information Science Information science (also known as information studies) is an academic field which is primarily concerned with analysis, collection, Categorization, classification, manipulation, storage, information retrieval, retrieval, movement, dissemin ...

and former Dean of the

Syracuse University School of Information Studies The Syracuse University School of Information Studies, also known as the iSchool, is a center for research and education in the policy, systems, service, and technology aspects of information management, information science, and library science. ...

. She is a pioneer in the field of

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to pro ...

Early life and education

Liddy grew up in

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

. She was one of five children, all of whom worked in her father's family business. Liddy attended St. Francis DeSalle High School, where she was awarded a Regent's Scholarship, and eventually attended Daemen College. She was literary editor of her high school year book and edited a literary magazine during her time at college. At Daemen College Liddy studied English language and literature. After graduating Liddy remained in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where she volunteered in an elementary school library. She joined the

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

School of Information Studies in 1983, where she started a graduate program in

library science Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

. She worked as a faculty librarian at

Onondaga Community College Onondaga Community College (OCC) is a public community college that serves Onondaga County, New York, at two campuses. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. History The college was founded in 1961 and began instruction ...

whilst earning her degree. Here Liddy worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor, whilst completing her doctorate part-time in

information transfer In telecommunications, information transfer is the process of moving messages containing user information from a source to a sink via a communication channel. In this sense, information transfer is equivalent to data transmission which highlights ...

. Her dissertation research involved

, a computerized approach to analyzing text. She was hired to the faculty at

whilst completing her PhD.

Research and career

In 1994 Liddy was the founding President of ''TextWise'', a semantics-based search engine. The first product she developed was called ''Document Retrieval Using Linguistic Knowledge'' (DR-LINK). She left ''TextWise'' in 1999, after growing the number of employees to over 50. She started the Syracuse University Center for Natural Language Processing in 1999, and was honored with the university's Outstanding Alumni Award the following year. Liddy was appointed Dean of the School of Information Studies (iSchool) in 2008, and held the position for over ten years. She temporarily left the role in 2015. The school was transformed under her leadership, increasing the enrollment of students by over 70% and launching a graduate certificate in data science. She raised over $20 million to support research and development at Syracuse University. She chaired the iSchool Organization, which connects information science schools all over the world, from 2012 to 2014. Liddy worked to increase the representation of women at the iSchool, through initiatives such as the IT Girls Overnight Retreat – an annual weekend to introduce high school girls to

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

. She improved the career development programs of students at Syracuse University, increasing student employment to almost 100% post graduation. Liddy retired as Dean of the iSchool in 2019.

Selected innovations

* * *

Personal life

Liddy was married shortly after graduating Daemen College in 1966. She has three children.

References

External links

*
Liddy on 'Cuse Conversations Podcast in 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liddy, Liz Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Syracuse University alumni Daemen College alumni Syracuse University faculty Information scientists Natural language processing researchers