Lydia Stang
Director of Engineering, Adobe Systems

Lydia Stang, while having most of her career centered around software development, claims an educational background completely focused on Chemistry. Her graduate studies at Clarkson University were also an indication of the scarcity of women in the chemical field itself (Clarkson having been a men's college). That first serious step into programming was to streamline lab experiments using a microprocessor, a feat accomplished within a month. As with other challenges, Lydia never let a "difficult task" get in the way of doing it.

Lydia gained her programming experience while at General Electric Research Center, and left the lab work and chemical analysis of plastics to others. After several years on a variety of projects and computers, she was ready to enter the industrial sector. At Fairchild Test Systems she quickly mastered the technology and became the software manager for a new product (which was to demo in 6 months of her assignment, on yet unfinished hardware). Next step was to enter yet another business sector, that of companies which built raster plotters (Schlumberger and Xerox). This last learning experience ledto another challenge presented by Adobe, to move their technology advancements out of the research/development arena and into the new PostScript Level 2 product base.

While at Adobe, Lydia continues to be instrumental in organizing the means by which 70 developers can continue to improve and extend the capabilities of PostScript products. As Director of Engineering she acts as project lead on new technology, matrix manages and coordinates several engineering groups, and works through many strategic decisions regarding PostScript development. As a counterpoint to her busy work schedule, she plays golf for fun and competition. She has won match play tournaments of the California Golf Association when she is the only woman competitor.