Scientista Spotlight - Meet Julia Hirschberg!
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Julia Hirschberg is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, after previously doing a PhD in sixteenth-century Mexican social history at the University of Michigan and teaching history at Smith. Dr. Hirschberg worked at Bell Laboratories and AT&T Laboratories -- Research from 1985-2003 as a Member of Technical Staff and a Department Head, creating the Human-Computer Interface Research Department there. She served as editor-in-chief of Computational Linguistics from 1993-2003 and was an editor-in-chief of Speech Communication from 2003-2006 and am now on the Editorial Board. She was on the Executive Board of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) from 1993-2003, has been on the Permanent Council of International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) since 1996, and served on the board of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) from 1999-2007 (as President 2005-2007). she is on the board of the CRA-W and have been active in working for diversity at AT&T and at Columbia. Herschberg has been a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence since 1994, an ISCA Fellow since 2008, and an ACL Fellow since 2011. she received an Honorary Doctorate (Hedersdoktor) from KTH in 2007, a Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association (CESAA) Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2009, the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award and the ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement in 2011.
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1. You previously earned a doctorate in Mexican history. What inspired you to change to computer science?
I got interested in Computer Science when I tried to create a socio-economic map of the city I was studying, Puebla de los Angeles, founded in 1531-32. I had incomplete information from notarial and baptismal records about the settlers, their land grants and sales, their relatives, and their friends, and wanted to find information about how the city grew and what the neighborhoods were over its first 30 years. A friend in the CS Department at UMass Amherst told me that this sounded like an AI problem, and gave me some books to read. Soon I had started programming in Lisp and by the end of that summer I was thinking about going into CS – it was so much fun. After taking some more math courses at Smith I decided to give CS a try and took some courses at UPenn. From there on it seemed like a natural thing to do.
2. What was your experience like studying computer science after having a background in humanities and social sciences?
I seemed to take a little more historical approach to my CS PhD. For example, I spent a lot of time finding previous research related to my thesis topic.
3. How would you describe your experience returning to school after working for a substantial amount of time?
Not being a professor and not having a secretary were hard to get used to. But Penn treated me very well. All of the women PhD students when I was there were very much valued by the department. It was a special place to be.
4. Your research group contains a percentage of female students that significantly exceeds the national average, as well as the average at Columbia. Is this purposeful?
I have had both men and women PhD students and they have all been great. It’s not hard to exceed the national average in percentage of female students. I do keep a special look out for excellent women candidates, but I’ve never used gender as a criterion for accepting any student into the program.
Do you see differences in terms of opportunities or obstacles for the younger women in your research group?
Of course. I’ve seen too many instances of subtle and overt discrimination to believe that women are treated as equals in hiring or evaluation in the work force. I think obstacles for women in graduate school tend more to be cultural or family obligations. For example, fewer women have spent their childhood playing with computers, so they may not have had the years of experience men have had. Also, some of them who choose to have children while in school have additional demands on their time, although most I know have managed to handle this incredibly well. I do have the sense that discrimination occurs much less during graduate school than after.
5. What research or accomplishment are you most proud of to date?
This is a really hard question. I’m proud of surviving changing fields and having success in my ‘second life’. I never expected the professional recognition I’ve had but I’m really happy to have had it. I’m proud of the PhD students I’ve had in the last 10 years who are all amazing people and scholars who are making great contributions to a field I care a lot about, Natural Language Processing.
6. How have you found your experience as a woman in computer science?
Quite honestly, it often wasn’t easy. I had a very good experience in graduate school at Penn because the faculty were supportive of students without respect to gender. Bell Labs a more naïve place – people didn’t seem to think it strange that there was only one female department head in all of R&D and one executive director told several of us who were pushing for salary and recruiting equity that if women and minorities didn’t feel comfortable at the Labs they could always get jobs elsewhere. It took a few years and quite a lot of persistent persuasion and fact gathering but we managed to make some changes in those attitudes. But what I’ve learned is that you can never be lulled into thinking that discrimination is a thing of the past. I’m sorry to say that and sorry that many women will only realize this once they’ve actually learned that they themselves have suffered from discrimination.
7. What advice do you have for aspiring women in science?
Find good mentors and network, network, network. When you feel that you haven’t been treated fairly, you’ll have a support group who can help you figure it out. Be a supporter of other people, men and women. The more helpful that you can be to others, the more help you will get. When I was starting out in CS I tended to be very competitive, especially with peers. I learned over the years that you gain much more by suggesting ways that something could be even better than by criticizing people for not doing those things. It’s a subtle but very important difference. Be supportive and you will gain much more than you can imagine.
8. If you could have done one thing differently in your career path, what would it have been?
I probably wouldn’t have changed my name when I got married – it didn’t seem important at the time but later I felt a bit differently. It’s a small thing but I wish I had thought more about it at the time.
9. Do you have a role model/mentor (female or male)? Why does this person inspire you?
My best role model has been my grandmother. She and her sisters showed my generation that women could play major roles in anything they chose to do. They’re gone now but always with me.
10. What would you want a student interested in computer science but who has not yet tried it to know about the field?
It’s incredibly fun and exciting. Like a mystery story. Trying to get a program to work well can be just as all-consuming as answering a major question about modeling human behavior…..and if you’re a computer scientist you can do both!
11. Why do you think organizations such as the Scientista Foundation are important?
Organizations that promote women in science and that help women to connect with other women in our field are incredibly important mechanisms for networking and sharing experiences. I’ve always found both of these absolutely crucial in making me realize that “it’s not just me”.
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I got interested in Computer Science when I tried to create a socio-economic map of the city I was studying, Puebla de los Angeles, founded in 1531-32. I had incomplete information from notarial and baptismal records about the settlers, their land grants and sales, their relatives, and their friends, and wanted to find information about how the city grew and what the neighborhoods were over its first 30 years. A friend in the CS Department at UMass Amherst told me that this sounded like an AI problem, and gave me some books to read. Soon I had started programming in Lisp and by the end of that summer I was thinking about going into CS – it was so much fun. After taking some more math courses at Smith I decided to give CS a try and took some courses at UPenn. From there on it seemed like a natural thing to do.
2. What was your experience like studying computer science after having a background in humanities and social sciences?
I seemed to take a little more historical approach to my CS PhD. For example, I spent a lot of time finding previous research related to my thesis topic.
3. How would you describe your experience returning to school after working for a substantial amount of time?
Not being a professor and not having a secretary were hard to get used to. But Penn treated me very well. All of the women PhD students when I was there were very much valued by the department. It was a special place to be.
4. Your research group contains a percentage of female students that significantly exceeds the national average, as well as the average at Columbia. Is this purposeful?
I have had both men and women PhD students and they have all been great. It’s not hard to exceed the national average in percentage of female students. I do keep a special look out for excellent women candidates, but I’ve never used gender as a criterion for accepting any student into the program.
Do you see differences in terms of opportunities or obstacles for the younger women in your research group?
Of course. I’ve seen too many instances of subtle and overt discrimination to believe that women are treated as equals in hiring or evaluation in the work force. I think obstacles for women in graduate school tend more to be cultural or family obligations. For example, fewer women have spent their childhood playing with computers, so they may not have had the years of experience men have had. Also, some of them who choose to have children while in school have additional demands on their time, although most I know have managed to handle this incredibly well. I do have the sense that discrimination occurs much less during graduate school than after.
5. What research or accomplishment are you most proud of to date?
This is a really hard question. I’m proud of surviving changing fields and having success in my ‘second life’. I never expected the professional recognition I’ve had but I’m really happy to have had it. I’m proud of the PhD students I’ve had in the last 10 years who are all amazing people and scholars who are making great contributions to a field I care a lot about, Natural Language Processing.
6. How have you found your experience as a woman in computer science?
Quite honestly, it often wasn’t easy. I had a very good experience in graduate school at Penn because the faculty were supportive of students without respect to gender. Bell Labs a more naïve place – people didn’t seem to think it strange that there was only one female department head in all of R&D and one executive director told several of us who were pushing for salary and recruiting equity that if women and minorities didn’t feel comfortable at the Labs they could always get jobs elsewhere. It took a few years and quite a lot of persistent persuasion and fact gathering but we managed to make some changes in those attitudes. But what I’ve learned is that you can never be lulled into thinking that discrimination is a thing of the past. I’m sorry to say that and sorry that many women will only realize this once they’ve actually learned that they themselves have suffered from discrimination.
7. What advice do you have for aspiring women in science?
Find good mentors and network, network, network. When you feel that you haven’t been treated fairly, you’ll have a support group who can help you figure it out. Be a supporter of other people, men and women. The more helpful that you can be to others, the more help you will get. When I was starting out in CS I tended to be very competitive, especially with peers. I learned over the years that you gain much more by suggesting ways that something could be even better than by criticizing people for not doing those things. It’s a subtle but very important difference. Be supportive and you will gain much more than you can imagine.
8. If you could have done one thing differently in your career path, what would it have been?
I probably wouldn’t have changed my name when I got married – it didn’t seem important at the time but later I felt a bit differently. It’s a small thing but I wish I had thought more about it at the time.
9. Do you have a role model/mentor (female or male)? Why does this person inspire you?
My best role model has been my grandmother. She and her sisters showed my generation that women could play major roles in anything they chose to do. They’re gone now but always with me.
10. What would you want a student interested in computer science but who has not yet tried it to know about the field?
It’s incredibly fun and exciting. Like a mystery story. Trying to get a program to work well can be just as all-consuming as answering a major question about modeling human behavior…..and if you’re a computer scientist you can do both!
11. Why do you think organizations such as the Scientista Foundation are important?
Organizations that promote women in science and that help women to connect with other women in our field are incredibly important mechanisms for networking and sharing experiences. I’ve always found both of these absolutely crucial in making me realize that “it’s not just me”.
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About the Author
Amy Prager
I AMA math education student at Columbia pursuing technical coursework at Princeton. My research and career focuses on outreach programs designed to encourage girls to pursue STEM majors and careers.
I AMA math education student at Columbia pursuing technical coursework at Princeton. My research and career focuses on outreach programs designed to encourage girls to pursue STEM majors and careers.