Residence New York Name Catherine Wolf | Nationality American | |
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Known for Human-computer interaction, ALS research Fields Psychology, Computer Science | ||
Catherine Gody Wolf (born May 25, 1947) is an American psychologist and expert in human-computer interaction. She is the author of more than 100 research articles and holds six patents in the areas of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and collaboration. Wolf is known for her work at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, where she was a 19-year staff researcher.
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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 is still able to communicate with the world via electronic sensory equipment, including a sophisticated brain-computer interface. Remarkably, with almost no voluntary physical functions remaining, she has published novel research into the fine-scale abilities of ALS patients.
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. After Brown, Wolf completed additional postgraduate work at MIT before entering the workforce as a full-time researcher.
Career
Wolf's career has 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.
In all, Wolf holds 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 has still contributed to research on human-computer interaction. In recent years, she has been working 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.
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 currently uses a computer system which translates movement of her eyebrows into text. She is adept at communicating in this way, even if though she can only "type" out one or two words a minute. She writes poetry, sends emails, conducts occasional interviews, and writes articles for such outlets as Neurology Now. She is even able to stay active on Facebook.
Since the loss of her muscle control, Wolf has also become an expert on brain-computer interface (BCI) systems, and has helped other researchers learn more about how such systems can work. She is aware that she will one day lose the ability to communicate with her eyebrows, so she's been working with scientists so that she can use an EEG-based interface system herself when that day comes. EEG (electroencephalography) measures voltage fluctuations along the scalp that result from neuron activity in the brain. With such a setup in place, Wolf hopes to be able to communicate words simply by focusing her thoughts on one letter at a time. So far, Wolf has provided researchers with important feedback about BCI's, since they don't work flawlessly yet.
Personal
Wolf is married to Joel Wolf, a mathematician at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center. They have 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."