Nancy G. Leveson is an American specialist in system and software safety and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at

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 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Leveson gained her degrees (in computer science, mathematics and management) from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, including her PhD in 1980. Previously she worked at

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

as a faculty member. She has studied

safety-critical system A safety-critical system (SCS) or life-critical system is a system whose failure or malfunction may result in one (or more) of the following outcomes: * death or serious injury to people * loss or severe damage to equipment/property * environme ...

s such as the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) for the avoidance of midair collisions between aircraft and problems with the

Therac-25 The Therac-25 was a computer-controlled radiation therapy machine produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) in 1982 after the Therac-6 and Therac-20 units (the earlier units had been produced in partnership with of France). It was invol ...

radiation therapy machine. Leveson has been editor of the journal ''

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering The ''IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It was established in 1975 and covers the area of software engineering. It is considered the leading journal in ...

''. She has held memberships in the ACM,

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Computer Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, System Safety Society, and

AIAA The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of t ...

Biography

Leveson is Professor of Aeronautics and

Astronautics Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field. The term ''astronautics'' (originally ''astronaut ...

and also Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT. Prof. Leveson conducts research on the topics of system safety, software safety, software and system engineering, and human-computer interaction. In 1999, she received the ACM Allen Newell Award for outstanding computer science research and in 1995 the AIAA Information Systems Award for "developing the field of software safety and for promoting responsible software and system engineering practices where life and property are at stake." She 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 ...

(NAE) in 2000 for contributions to software safety. She has published over 200 research papers and is author of two books, "Safeware: System Safety and Computers" published in 1995 by Addison-Wesley and "Engineering a Safer World" published in 2012 by MIT Press. She consults extensively in many industries on the ways to prevent accidents. In 2005, she received the ACM Sigsoft Outstanding Research Award. She developed the STPA (System Theoretic Process Analysis) and STAMP (System Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) methodologies for

accident analysis Accident analysis is carried out in order to determine the cause or causes of an accident (that can result in single or multiple outcomes) so as to prevent further accidents of a similar kind. It is part of ''accident investigation or incident inv ...

. In 2020, she received the

IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

for her development of STAMP and other system safety and accident modeling analysis tools.

Books

* Erik Hollnagel, David D. Woods, Nancy Leveson
Resilience Engineering: Concepts and Precepts

Ashgate Publishing, Ltd Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham ( Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office i ...

., 2007. . * Nancy G. Leveson,
Safeware: System Safety and Computers
'.

Addison-Wesley Addison-Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson PLC, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributes its technical titles through ...

, 1995. . * Nancy G. Leveson,
Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety
'. MIT Press, 2011. .
Open access pdf downloads
of book chapters.

References

External links

Nancy Leveson's Home Page at MIT
*
Medical Devices - Therac 25
Living people American non-fiction writers Formal methods people University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Irvine faculty University of Washington faculty MIT School of Engineering faculty Computer science writers Academic journal editors Year of birth missing (living people) American women computer scientists American computer scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering American women academics 21st-century American women {{US-academic-scientist-stub