Catherine G. Wolf
{{short description|American psychologist and computer scientist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Catherine G. Wolf
| image = Catherine_Wolf_at_computer.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = When Wolf raises her eyebrows, the black band around her forehead rises, and triggers her switch.
|birth_date={{birth date|mf=yes|1947|5|25}}
|birth_place=Washington, D.C., United States
|death_date={{death date and age|mf=yes|2018|2|7|1947|5|25}}
|death_place=Katonah, New York
| field = Psychology, Computer science
| work_institution = IBM
| alma_mater = Tufts University, Brown University
| doctoral_advisor = Peter D. Eimas
| known_for = Human-computer interaction, ALS research
| prizes = Tufts University Distinguished Service Award
| footnotes =
}}
Catherine Gody Wolf (May 25, 1947 – February 7, 2018) was an American psychologist and expert in human-computer interaction. She was the author of more than 100 research articles and held six patents in the areas of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and collaboration.{{cite web| last =Weinstock | first =Maia | title =Channeling Ada: Catherine Wolf, Master Communicator | publisher =Annals of Spacetime | date =March 24, 2010 | url =http://annalsofspacetime.blogspot.com/2010/03/channeling-ada-catherine-wolf-master.html | access-date =October 15, 2012 }} Wolf was known for her work at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, where she was a 19-year staff researcher.{{cite web| last =Schwartzapfel | first =Beth | title =I Will Be Heard! | publisher =Brown Alumni Magazine | date =March–April 2009 | url =http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/content/view/2218/40/ | access-date =October 15, 2012 }}
In the late 1990s, Wolf was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Despite a rapid physical deterioration, Wolf was still able to communicate with the world via electronic sensory equipment, including a sophisticated brain-computer interface.{{cite web | title =Wiring the Brain | publisher =American Museum of Natural History | url =http://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins/human/features/tapping-in-the-promise-of-brain-computer-interface/wiring-the-brain | archive-url =https://archive.today/20130224133950/http://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins/human/features/tapping-in-the-promise-of-brain-computer-interface/wiring-the-brain | url-status =dead | archive-date =February 24, 2013 | access-date =October 15, 2012 }} Remarkably, with almost no voluntary physical functions remaining, she published novel research into the fine-scale abilities of ALS patients.{{cite journal| last1 = Wicks | first1 = P. | last2 = Massagli | first2 = M.P. | last3 = Wolf | first3 = C. | last4 = Heywood | first4 = J. | title = Measuring function in advanced ALS: validation of ALSFRS-EX extension items | journal = European Journal of Neurology | volume = 16 | issue = 1 | pages = 353–359 | date = March 2009 | doi=10.1111/j.1468-1331.2008.02434.x| pmid = 19364363 | s2cid = 27696665 }}
Education
Wolf completed her undergraduate degree at Tufts University, where she majored in psychology. In 1967 she met her future husband, Joel Wolf, then a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both continued on to graduate school at Brown University, where Catherine focused her research on the way that children perceive speech.{{cite journal| first = Catherine G. | last = Wolf | title = The perception of stop constants by children| journal = Journal of Experimental Child Psychology| volume = 16 | issue = 2 | pages = 318–331| year = 1973 | doi=10.1016/0022-0965(73)90170-7| pmid = 4773589 }} After Brown, Wolf completed additional postgraduate work at MIT before entering the workforce as a full-time researcher.{{cite document| title = DSpace@MIT : Speech Communication| publisher = Massachusetts Institute of Technology| hdl = 1721.1/56599| date = January 1976| last1 = Klatt| first1 = Dennis H.| last2 = Shattuck-Hufnagel| first2 = Stefanie R.| last3 = Perkell| first3 = Joseph S.| last4 = Delgutte| first4 = Bertrand| last5 = Halle| first5 = Morris| last6 = Maeda| first6 = Shinji| last7 = Stevens| first7 = Kenneth N.| last8 = Vaissière| first8 = Jacqueline| last9 = Blumstein| first9 = Sheila E.| last10 = Bush| first10 = Marcia A.| last11 = Cooper| first11 = William E.| last12 = Ganong| first12 = William F.| last13 = Williams| first13 = Katherine Lee| last14 = Wolf| first14 = Catherine| last15 = Huggins| first15 = A. W. F.| last16 = Goldstein| first16 = Ursula G.| last17 = Menn| first17 = Lise| last18 = Henke| first18 = William L.| last19 = Zue| first19 = Victor W.}}
Career
Wolf's career focused on human-computer interaction. In 1977, she joined Bell Labs, where she became a human factors manager. Eight years later, she began her tenure as a research psychologist at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM's research headquarters. During her time at IBM, Wolf was particularly interested in learning how people interact with software in the workplace. In response to behaviors she observed, she designed and tested new interface systems in which speech and handwritten words could be converted to digital information. Among other technologies, Wolf worked on a system known as the Conversation Machine, which was the precursor of today's phone banking systems: users could access their accounts by conversing with an automated voice system. She also published papers on the sharing of information in the workplace and search in the context of technical support.{{cite web| title = Catherine G Wolf - ACM author profile page| publisher = Association for Computing Machinery| date = December 15, 2005| url = http://dl.acm.org/author_page.cfm?id=81332535977&coll=DL&dl=ACM&trk=0&cfid=143550858&cftoken=80739447| access-date = November 19, 2012 }}
In all, Wolf held title to six patents and more than 100 research articles. In 1997, she was diagnosed with ALS, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease, which eventually prevented her from performing her normal work duties. Wolf went on long-term disability leave in 2004 and officially retired from IBM in 2012. Even after losing almost all muscle function, however, Wolf still contributed to research on human-computer interaction. She also did work with the Wadsworth Center, part of the New York State Department of Health, as a tester of various systems. In 2009, Wolf also published a research article extending a scale commonly used to assess the progression of ALS (known as the ALSFRS-R) to more finely assess the abilities of people with advanced ALS. This paper added significantly to the understanding of what ALS patients might be capable of even after most of their muscle function has been lost.
Living with ALS
Wolf first felt symptoms of ALS in 1996, when her foot wouldn't flex properly. She was positively diagnosed with ALS a year later.{{cite news| last = Lerner| first = Jane| title = Computer opens door to communication for woman with ALS| newspaper = The Journal News| date = 5 August 2008| url = http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/archive/index.php/t-51479.html| access-date = 19 November 2012| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023351/http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/archive/index.php/t-51479.html| archive-date = 4 March 2016| url-status = dead}}
In 2001, Wolf decided to have a tracheotomy, a surgical procedure that permanently attached a breathing tube in her neck, allowing her to breathe without the use of her nose or mouth.
Wolf eventually lost the use of all of her muscles except a few in her face and eyes. To communicate, she used a computer system which translated movement of her eyebrows into text. She was adept at communicating in this way, even if though she could only "type" out one or two words a minute. She wrote poetry,{{cite web | title = Poetry by Guest Blogger Dr. Cathy Wolf | publisher = Prize4Life | date = 22 February 2010 | url = http://blog.prize4life.org/2010/02/poetry-by-guest-blogger-dr-cathy-wolf.html | access-date = 19 November 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120625191439/http://blog.prize4life.org/2010/02/poetry-by-guest-blogger-dr-cathy-wolf.html | archive-date = 25 June 2012 | url-status = dead }} sent emails, conducted occasional interviews,{{cite news | last = Baldwin| first = Brooke | title = Writing emails with her mind| newspaper = The Situation Room| publisher = CNN| date = 5 February 2010| url = http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/02/05/baldwin.mind.control.pt2.cnn}} and wrote articles for such outlets as Neurology Now. {{Citation| last1 = Fuchs | first1 = Marek| title = COUNTY LINES: A Thing or Two to Say Before Dying| newspaper = The New York Times| date = 28 August 2005| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3D91E3EF93BA1575BC0A9639C8B63| access-date = 19 November 2012 }}{{cite web| title = Search Results : "Catherine Wolf" | publisher = Neurology Now | url = http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow/pages/results.aspx?k=catherine%20wolf&Scope=AllIssues&txtKeywords=catherine%20wolf| access-date = 19 November 2012}} She was even able to stay active on Facebook.{{cite web| title = Cathy Wolf - Facebook| website = Facebook| url = https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cathy-Wolf/201655209955| access-date = 8 February 2018}}
Concurrent with the loss of her muscle control, Wolf became increasingly an expert on brain-computer interface (BCI) systems,{{cite journal| author-link = Catherine G. Wolf| title = Wave of the Future| journal = Neurology Now| volume = 3| issue = 6| pages = 41–42| date = November–December 2007| url = http://patients.aan.com/resources/neurologynow/?event=home.showArticle&id=ovid.com:/bib/ovftdb/01222928-200703060-00026| access-date = 19 November 2012| doi = 10.1097/01.nnn.0000300616.68347.d3| last1 = Wolf| first1 = Catherine G.| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130308062647/http://patients.aan.com/resources/neurologynow/?event=home.showArticle&id=ovid.com%3A%2Fbib%2Fovftdb%2F01222928-200703060-00026| archive-date = 8 March 2013| url-status = dead}} and helped other researchers learn more about how such systems can work. She was aware that she might lose the ability to communicate with her eyebrows, so she worked with scientists on an EEG-based interface system for herself, if that day came. EEG (electroencephalography) measures voltage fluctuations along the scalp that result from neuron activity in the brain. With such a setup in place, Wolf hoped to communicate words simply by focusing her thoughts on one letter at a time. Wolf provided researchers with important feedback about BCI's, since they didn't work flawlessly.
Personal
Wolf was married to Joel Wolf, a mathematician at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center. They had two daughters, Laura and Erika, and several grandchildren.
On April 26, 2003, Wolf was honored with a Distinguished Service Award from her alma mater, Tufts University, for "the ideal of citizenship and public service."{{cite web | title = Distinguished Service Awards recipients announced | date = 31 January 2003 | publisher = Tufts University Alumni | url = http://tuftsalumni.org/m/news-detail/128/ | access-date = 19 November 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121116192104/http://tuftsalumni.org/m/news-detail/128/ | archive-date = 16 November 2012 | url-status = dead }}
On February 7, 2018, Wolf died at her home in Katonah, New York at the age of 70.{{Cite news |last=Sandomir |first=Richard |date=February 22, 2018 |title=Catherine Wolf, 70, Dies; Studied How People and Computers Interact |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/obituaries/catherine-wolf-70-dies-studied-how-people-and-computers-interact.html |newspaper=The New York Times }}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/content/view/2218/40/ Beth Schwartzapfel. "I Will Be Heard!" Brown Alumni Monthly, March/April, 2009] (retrieved October 15, 2012)
- [http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/02/05/baldwin.mind.control.pt2.cnn Brooke Baldwin. "Writing emails with her mind." CNN, February 5, 2010] (retrieved November 19, 2012)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20130308062647/http://patients.aan.com/resources/neurologynow/?event=home.showArticle&id=ovid.com%3A%2Fbib%2Fovftdb%2F01222928-200703060-00026 Catherine G. Wolf. "Wave of the Future." Neurology Now, November/December 2007. Volume 3(6). p 41-42] (retrieved November 19, 2012)
- [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3D91E3EF93BA1575BC0A9639C8B63 Marek Fuchs. "A Thing or Two to Say Before Dying." The New York Times, August 28, 2005] (retrieved November 19, 2012)
- [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cathy-Wolf/201655209955 Cathy Wolf - Facebook]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ZrwW9C5z0 Hear Me Now - The Story of Catherine Wolf, Human-Computer Interaction Pioneer] (retrieved May 6, 2018)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Catherine Gody}}
Category:21st-century American scientists
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:21st-century American women scientists
Category:American computer scientists
Category:American women computer scientists
Category:Human–computer interaction researchers
Category:American artificial intelligence researchers
Category:American women psychologists
Category:20th-century American psychologists
Category:Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:People from Washington, D.C.
Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in New York (state)