Professor Wendy Hall, head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, will today receive the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership at a ceremony in San Diego.

The award was established in 2004 in memory of Anita Borg, a computer scientist who spent much of her time working to encourage more women into science and technology.

Professor Hall said she was thrilled to be receiving the award: "It is a tremendous honour and one I shall always be proud of."

Hall is one of the UK's computer science big wigs. She is currently the vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is a member of the Prime Minister's council for science and technology and was previously the head of the British Computer Society.

Her work at Southampton University includes developing the Microcosm open hypermedia system. She has also recently begun work with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and colleagues at Southampton to develop "a new research initiative in the emerging field of web science". ®