Liz Liddy
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Daemen College (BS)
Liz Liddy | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 12, 1944 Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | August 21, 2025 (aged 81) |
| Alma mater | Syracuse University (PhD) Daemen College (BS) |
| Known for | Natural language processing |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | SU School of Information Studies |
| Thesis | The discourse-level structure of natural texts : an exploratory study of empirical abstracts (1988) |
| Website | ischool |
Elizabeth DuRoss Liddy (May 12, 1944 – August 21, 2025) was an American computer scientist and academic who was professor of information science and dean of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies. She was a pioneer in the field of natural language processing.
Liddy was born in Dayton, Ohio, on May 14, 1944, and grew up in Utica, New York.[1][2] She was one of five children, all of whom worked in her father's family business.[2] Liddy attended St. Francis DeSalle High School, where she was awarded a Regent's Scholarship, and eventually attended Daemen College.[2] She was literary editor of her high school year book and edited a literary magazine during her time at college.[3] At Daemen College Liddy studied English language and literature.[2] After graduating Liddy remained in New York, where she volunteered in an elementary school library.[2][3] She joined the Syracuse University School of Information Studies in 1983, where she started a graduate program in library science.[2] She worked as a faculty librarian at Onondaga Community College whilst earning her degree.[3] Here Liddy worked as a Visiting assistant professor, whilst completing her doctorate part-time in information transfer.[4] Her dissertation research involved natural language processing, a computerized approach to analyzing text.[5][6] She was hired to the faculty at Syracuse University whilst completing her PhD.[2][7]
Research and career
In 1994 Liddy was the founding President of TextWise, a semantics-based search engine.[2][3][8] The first product she developed was called Document Retrieval Using Linguistic Knowledge (DR-LINK).[3] She left TextWise in 1999, after growing the number of employees to over 50.[9] She started the Syracuse University Center for Natural Language Processing in 1999,[3] and was honored with the university's Outstanding Alumni Award the following year.[10]
Liddy was appointed Dean of the School of Information Studies (iSchool) in 2008, and held the position for over ten years. She temporarily left the role in 2015.[4] The school was transformed under her leadership, increasing the enrollment of students by over 70% and launching a graduate certificate in data science.[4] She raised over $20 million to support research and development at Syracuse University.[4]
She chaired the iSchool Organization, which connects information science schools all over the world, from 2012 to 2014.[4] Liddy worked to increase the representation of women at the iSchool, through initiatives such as the IT Girls Overnight Retreat – an annual weekend to introduce high school girls to Information Technology.[4] She improved the career development programs of students at Syracuse University, increasing student employment to almost 100% post graduation.[4] Liddy retired as Dean of the iSchool in 2019.[4]
Selected innovations
- US 6026388, Liddy, Elizabeth D., "User interface and other enhancements for natural language information retrieval system and method", published August 16, 1995, issued February 15, 2000
- US 5963940, Liddy, Elizabeth D., "Natural language information retrieval system and method", published August 16, 1995, issued October 5, 1999
- US 6006221, Liddy, Elizabeth D., "Multilingual document retrieval system and method using semantic vector matching", published August 16, 1995, issued December 21, 1999