The 2013 Frank Willison Memorial Award

Congratulations go to Anna Martelli Ravenscroft who has been presented with the Frank Willison Memorial Award this year for her outstanding contribution to the Python Community, which includes her volunteer work at both PyCon and OSCON and her public speaking.

Anna has a background in training and mentoring. She brings a fresh perspective to software development with a focus on practical, real-world problem solving, usability and the concrete benefits of diversity. Anna has spoken at both PyCons and at OSCon about diversity and outreach efforts in the Python community and in open source communities more generally. She tirelessly volunteers as an organiser at many of these conferences and is a familiar face at their registration booths. She has also served on the PyCon and OSCON programme committees.

Anna, who graduated in 2010 from Stanford University with a degree in Cognitive Science, was the first woman member of the Python Software Foundation.

She has published several articles and co-authored the second edition of the Python Cookbook with her husband, Alex Martelli.

Python is not her only interest.  At the last EuroPython Anna was spotted knitting a lovely hat for her step-daughter and on another occasion gave Josette a great recipe for sauerkraut.

The Frank Willison Memorial Award for Contributions to the Python Community is given annually to a person judged to have made an outstanding contribution to the Python community. The award was established in memory of Frank Willison, a Python enthusiast and O’Reilly editor-in-chief, who died in 2001.

O’Reilly Media presents the award annually at OSCON, the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. The recipient is chosen by O’Reilly Media in consultation with Guido van Rossum and delegates of the Python Software Foundation.

“Contributions can encompass so much more than code. A successful software community requires time, dedication, communication, and education as well as elegant code. With the Frank Willison Memorial Award, we hoped to acknowledge all of those things.”  – Tim O’Reilly