COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Karen Spärck Jones

1935 - 2007

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Karen Ida Boalth Spärck Jones (26 August 1935 – 4 April 2007) was a self-taught programmer and a pioneering British computer and information scientist responsible for the concept of inverse document frequency (IDF), a technology that underlies most modern search engines. She was an advocate for women in computer science, her slogan being, "Computing is too important to be left to men." In 2019, The New York Times published her belated obituary in its series Overlooked, calling her "a pioneer of computer science for work combining statistics and linguistics, and an advocate for women in the field." From 2008, to recognise her achievements in the fields of information retrieval (IR) and natural language processing (NLP), the Karen Spärck Jones Award is awarded annually to a recipient for outstanding research in one or both of her fields. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Karen Spärck Jones is the 127th most popular computer scientist (down from 98th in 2019), the 3,674th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 2,972nd in 2019) and the 12th most popular British Computer Scientist.

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Karen Spärck Jones ranks 127 out of 245. Before her are Eugene Garfield, Liviu Librescu, Gil Amelio, Sergey Lebedev, David A. Huffman, and Ivar Jacobson. After her are Peter Norton, Edmund M. Clarke, E. Allen Emerson, Abraham Lempel, Bill Joy, and Robert Taylor.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1935, Karen Spärck Jones ranks 332. Before her are Dimitri Kitsikis, Jacques Gaillot, Theodor Hoffmann, Jim Dine, Győző Forintos, and Teddy Mayer. After her are Rosenda Monteros, Akgün Kaçmaz, Luigi Radice, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Ronald Lacey, and Tarcísio Meira. Among people deceased in 2007, Karen Spärck Jones ranks 262. Before her are Maurice Boitel, Klausjürgen Wussow, Julius Wess, Ellen Preis, Ove Grahn, and Huang Ju. After her are Sidney Coleman, Bohdan Paczyński, Angelo Conterno, Carlo Clerici, Jef Planckaert, and Raymond Kaelbel.

Others Born in 1935

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Karen Spärck Jones ranks 3,675 out of 8,785. Before her are Patricia Medina (1919), Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593), Alan Bullock (1914), Ethel Thomson Larcombe (1879), Patrick Abercrombie (1879), and Amelia Edwards (1831). After her are Dave Charlton (1936), Philip Hammond (1955), Henry Salt (1780), John Abbot (1751), Dorothea Bate (1878), and Lachlan Macquarie (1762).

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In United Kingdom

Among computer scientists born in United Kingdom, Karen Spärck Jones ranks 12. Before her are Paul Graham (1964), James H. Wilkinson (1919), Martin Fowler (1963), Robin Milner (1934), Alan Cox (1968), and Stephen Wolfram (1959). After her are Demis Hassabis (1976), Kathleen Booth (1922), David Marr (1945), Richard Garriott (1961), Gary McKinnon (1966), and Andrew Morton (1959).

British born Computer Scientists

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