Jane L. Snowdon. Credit: Penn State
2022 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award: Jane L. Snowdon
3/25/2022
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Jane L. Snowdon, deputy chief science officer for science operations at IBM Watson Health, has been named one of 11 recipients of the 2022 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award by the Penn State College of Engineering.
Snowdon earned her bachelor of science in industrial and manufacturing engineering, with honors, from Penn State in 1981 and received the Outstanding Senior Award in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She then received a master of science in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan in 1982 and joined IBM. Snowdon earned her doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from The Georgia Institute of Technology in 1994.
In her current role, Snowdon is responsible for assisting the chief science officer in developing scientific strategy; integrating scientific expertise and evaluation into product design and development process; leading and managing team personnel in executing scientific strategy; and engaging clients and academic partners in scientific collaborations to support IBM and Watson Health business goals.
She has spent nearly 40 years at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and IBM Watson Health as an informatician and applied researcher contributing to health care, government, industrial, energy and environment, and travel and transportation industries. Snowdon co-led the IBM analysis known as the Global Technology Outlook in 2013, which focused on cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security, and was adopted by IBM for its strategic imperatives. Snowdon previously served as the chief innovation officer for IBM Federal and as the inaugural director of the IBM Federal Cloud Innovation Center.
Snowdon is an elected member of the IBM Industry Academy and Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering and a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association. She is also a senior member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers. She is also a member of the American Public Health Association, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences and Sigma Xi. She also received the 2019 APHA Achievement in Industry award, the 2020 YWCA Greenwich Women Who Inspire award and was honored by the State College Area School District Education Foundation Maroon & Gray Society in 2020.
In service to her alma maters, Snowdon has served on five university industrial and professional advisory councils, including for Penn State’s College of Engineering and Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, which she chaired.
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