Maria Klawe

Maria Klawe (1951- ) is a mathematician, computer scientist and the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College. She was born in Toronto, Canada, spent her childhood in Scotland before returning to Canada. She attended the University of Alberta for undergrad, grad, and her Ph.D. in mathematics. She started her second Ph.D. at University of Toronto but was offered a faculty position there before she could complete it. She worked for IBM and Discrete Mathematics, and at as the Head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, and has been on the board of directors for Microsoft. After UBC she moved to Princeton as the dean of engineering and professor of computer science, before landing at Harvey Mudd College, where she is the first woman president. She is a member of the board Broadcom Corporation and the nonprofit Math for America, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is a passionate scholar and educator, determined to close the computer science gender gap.