Hal Abelson personal archives

Harold "Hal" Abelson, born July 26, 1947, is Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He received an AB, 1969, from Princeton University and a PhD, 1973, from MIT in Mathematics. At MIT, he was appointed Instructor, 1973-1974, in Mathematics and the Division for Study and Research in Education (DSRE); Lecturer, 1974-1977, in Mathematics and DSRE; Assistant Professor, 1977-1979, DSRE and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Associate Professor, 1979-1982, DSRE and EECS; Associate Professor, 1982-1991, EECS; and Professor in EECS starting in 1991. In 1994, he was awarded the Class of 1922 Professorship.

Abelson was involved with numerous committees and research groups at MIT, including the Educational Computing Group, the Laboratory for Computer Science, and the Project for Mathematics and Computation (ProjectMaC). AT MIT Press, he served on the Editorial Board from 1984 to 1998, and the Management Board from 1999-2015. From 1999 to 2006, he served as a director of the MIT-Microsoft Alliance, Project I-Campus. He later cochaired the Council on Educational Technology (MITCET), which recommended the creation of Open Courseware (OCW). He remained involved with OCW as a member of the OCW Faculty Advisory Committee.

In addition to his work at MIT, Abelson was a founding director of Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, and the Free Software Foundation. He was also a former director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. In 1996, he organized the Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy.

Abelson is the co-author of Turtle Geometry, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, and Blown to Bits. His field of interest is educational computing and applications of symbolic and numerical computing to science and engineering.

1965

National Merit Scholar

1965-1969

University Scholar, Princeton University

1968

G. B. Wood Legacy, Princeton University

1969

Senior Prize in Mathematics, Princeton University

1974

Lilly Teaching Fellow, MIT

1992

Junior Bose Teaching Award, MIT School of Engineering

1992-2002

MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT

1993

Adler Scholar, MIT

1994

Elected Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

1995

Taylor L. Booth Education Award, IEEE Computer Society

2003-2004

Visiting Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa

2011

Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

2012

Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education, Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (ACM SIGCSE)