Edie Stern On List of All-Time Smartest People

Edie Stern is #26 on Libb Thims’ list of the 40 smartest people of all time reports Business Insider.

Stern is a well-known club, con and zine fan — past chair of SFSFS, head of the 1992 Worldcon program division, co-editor of the SFSFS Shuttle and Shadow of a Fan.

Stern also has over 100 patents to her name. Her professional honors include the Kate Gleason Award, presented during ASME’s 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition.

Thims evaluated both IQ and accomplishments to rank the smartest people in history, a result arrived at after indexing these capabilities in numerous ways.

Albert Einstein is #2 on his list. Johann Goethe, considered by Einstein to be “the last man in the world to know everything,” is #1.

 [Thanks to Owen Whiteoak for the story.]

Edie Stern Honored By Alma Mater

Edie Stern

Edie Stern

Edie Stern will be Grand Marshal of the Florida Atlanta University Homecoming parade today, November 2 — one of several honors bestowed this week by her alma mater.

Stern received FAU’s Alumni Talon Award in a ceremony on October 30, one of four given Talon Awards for leadership, support and service to the university.

The youngest graduate in school history, she began attending junior college when she was 12 years old, and received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from FAU at the age of 15 in 1968.

“FAU really took a chance on me. I was young and hadn’t been away from home before for any extended period of time,” she was quoted in an FAU press release. “I made good friends that I’m still in touch with, and learned the blinding beauty that mathematics can be. The education I received at FAU prepared me well for graduate school and for a career in technology. For this I’m very grateful.”

Stern has worked at IBM for more than 40 years, and is a master inventor who has been issued 126 U.S. patents with many more pending. In 2012, she received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Kate Gleason Award for lifetime achievement in the engineering profession.

The local Sun-Sentinel  also has coverage about her award.

Edith Stern Wins Kate Gleason Award

Edith Stern

Edith Stern will be recognized for lifetime achievement in developing novel applications of new technologies when she is presented the Kate Gleason Award at a special Honors Assembly in conjunction with ASME’s 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Houston, November 9-15.

The award is named for Kate Gleason, the first woman to be welcomed as a full member into ASME (founded as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers). Winners receive  $10,000, a bronze medal, certificate and an expense supplement to attend the award presentation

Stern has spent nearly 40 years contributing insights and technology to industries leveraging information technology (IT). She is named as an inventor on more than 100 issued U.S. patents, and educates on the patent process worldwide. An innovator that has made a real impact, Stern’s broad contributions span multiple industries—she was at the forefront of integrating the internet and telephone networks, put tablet computers on 18-wheeler trucks, and was part of the team that won a technical Emmy for digital commercial insertion on the Warner Bros. Television Network. She also initiated several projects related to remote monitoring and the use of radio frequency identification systems in the healthcare industry to improve safety and efficiency.

An IBM distinguished engineer since 2008, she is currently responsible for applying analytics in products for service management in the data center. She was named an IBM master inventor in 1998 and has been a member of the IBM Academy of Technology since 1999.

She is also a well-known club, con and zine fan — past chair of SFSFS, head of the 1992 Worldcon program division, co-editor of the SFSFS Shuttle and Shadow of a Fan, just to name a few of her credits.