Nerd Girls' Dr. Karen Panetta to get Women of Vision Award!

The Awards honor women making significant contributions to technology in three categories: Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact. The three winners are selected from a field of highly qualified women in technology professions in industry, academia, non-profits or government. Candidates are considered based on their records of (1) consistent, significant contributions to technology invention and application; (2) effecting positive changes in the ways in which technology impacts society; and (3) demonstrated leadership in the technology industry that extends beyond their place of work.

Dr. Panetta is the Women of Vision Award winner in the Social Impact category. She is recognized not only for her contributions in both academia and industry but also as one of the United States leading experts in innovating successful low-cost methods for disseminating engineering and science to youth, parents, educators and the general public to help recruit young women to the STEM disciplines. Her Nerd Girls international program has inspired young women by teaching them that engineers and scientists create innovations for the benefit of humanity.

Dr. Panetta will be honored for her accomplishments and contributions at the sixth annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet at the Mission City Ballroom, Santa Clara, California on May 19, 2011. The event will feature keynote speaker Anousheh Ansari, first female private space explorer and first space ambassador.

The Anita Borg Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization whose partners include:

Google, Microsoft, HP, CA, Cisco, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Motorola Foundation, Yahoo!, Amazon, Facebook, and Raytheon. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.