Andrea LaPaugh facts for kids

Andrea Suzanne LaPaugh is an American computer scientist. She is a professor emerita of computer science at Princeton University. This means she is a retired professor who still holds her title. Her work has focused on how to design and analyze computer programs. She also studied problems related to designing computer chips. Another area she worked on was how computers find information.

Growing Up and School

Andrea LaPaugh grew up in Middletown, Connecticut. Her father worked in an office. Her mother was a librarian. She went to Cornell University for college. There, she studied physics.

When she was at Cornell, there was no computer science major. But Andrea became very interested in computers. She took classes like "mathematical logic" and "formal languages." These classes taught her about how computers think and process information. Famous computer scientists like John Hopcroft were some of her teachers.

She started her advanced studies in 1974. This was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She worked with Ron Rivest, a well-known computer scientist. Andrea finished her Ph.D. in 1980. Her main project was about designing tiny parts inside computers called integrated circuits.

Her Career at Princeton

After MIT, Andrea LaPaugh taught at Brown University for a year. Then, in 1981, she joined the faculty at Princeton University. At first, she was the only female engineering professor there.

In 1987, she earned tenure. This meant she had a permanent teaching position. She was the only tenured woman in engineering at Princeton at that time. She became a full professor in 1995.

From 2000 to 2004, she was the "master" of Forbes College at Princeton. This is a special role where a professor helps lead a residential college for students. She retired in 2019. After retiring, she became a professor emerita.