Susan Nycum

Co-author of the landmark 1973 study Computer Abuse, Nycum helped produce one of the first attempts to define and document computer-related crime, working alongside information security researcher Donn B. Parker. The study is recognized as a minor classic in the field.

A lawyer who specialized in computer security and intellectual property, Nycum worked at Chickering and Gregory in San Francisco before becoming a partner at Baker & McKenzie, where she headed its IT and intellectual property group. She also served as Chairwoman of the National Information Systems Advisory Panel in the early 1980s, and approved funding for the Internet in her role as an advisory board member for the National Science Foundation.

Nycum was a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and a member of its council. An early member of SIGUCCS, the ACM's special interest group for higher education, she was inducted into its hall of fame in 2004. She also served as an advisor to the United States government and several foreign governments, and produced studies on the laws surrounding software patents.