A Brief History of SIGA C T News and its Editors David S. Johnson AT&T Labs dsj @research. art. com During its long and multi-colored career, S I G A C T News has gone through m a n y changes. Here is a brief summary, based on a review of a nearly-complete collection of issues t. As I do not have space or time to do justice to the m a n y memorable articles that have appeared over the years, this note will mainly serve as to summarize the publication history of SIGA C T News as it grew alongside S I G A C T , and to honor the seven S I G A C T members w h o have served us as Editors over the years. Issue 1 was dated April 1969 and was entitled " S I C A C T News" since we were a Special Interest Committee at that time. The Editor was Jurg Nievergelt of the University of Illinois. The issue includes a review of the Minsky-Papert Perceptron book by him, as well as a description of "Automata Theory at Illinois."There is also a Chairman's column from Pat Fischer and a report on S W A T 1968 by R a y m o n d Yeh. Issue 4 announced that conversion to S I G A C T (a promotion from Committee to Group) has been approved. Issue 6 is the first I have to be called S I G A C T News (although the change m a y already occurred with the missing 5th issue). Jurg remained Editor, but Larry Reeker of Ohio State took over with Issue 7 (September 1970). The first 10 issues had white plain paper covers. With Issue 11 a major step toward respectability occurred with the introduction of a thick pale green cover that remained standard throughout the 70's. Larry continued as Editor through Issue 38 (Vol 10:1, Spring 1978) - the current record for longevity in the job (although one I hope that Ian will surpass). Larry took the job traveling with him, however, moving to University of Oregon for issue 20 (5:3, July 1973), and to the University of Arizona for issue 28 (7:3, S u m m e r 1975). Emily Friedman ( U C L A ) took over as Editor with Issue 39 (10:2, S u m m e r 1978 Late), moving to Hughes Aircraft with issue 46 (13:1, Winter 1981). Her last issue was 49 (14:2, Spring 1982). Meera Blattner (UC Davis/Livermore) took over as Editor with Issue 50 (14:3, S u m m e r 1982) and the newsletter took on its current orange hue. Meera served through Issue 56 (16:2 S u m m e r 1984). [Issues 52 through 56 did not display issue numbers.] Victor Miller (IBM Yorktown Heights) took over as Editor with Issue 57 (16:3 Fall 1984), serving through Issue 67 (19:1, Fall 1987). Mike Langston (Washington State) took over with Issue 68 (19:2, S u m m e r 1988), serving through Issue 79 (22:2, Spring 1991), with a move to University of Tennessee as of Issue 72 (20:3, Summer 1989). fan Parberry (University of North Texas) became Editor with Issue 80 (22:3, S u m m e r 1991), and is now halfway through his first 10-yeax term... IThe collection goes back to Issue No i, but I'm missing Issues 5, 9, and 14. The issues earlier than 1973 were donated by AI A h o when I was working on the S T O C / F O C S bibliography. Help in tracking down the three missing issues would be greatly appreciated.

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