The one and only Loren Shure has just announced her retirement from MathWorks.

I met Loren in early 1993 at the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing in Minneapolis. She would not confirm my suspicion that MathWorks was working on a new Image Processing Toolbox, but I offered to be a beta tester for it anyway.

The next time I saw her in person was that September, when she took me out to dinner the night before my MathWorks job interview. The highlight of the next day was brainstorming and sketching out Image Processing Toolbox demo ideas with her on the blackboard. Soon after, Loren called to offer me a job in her “Apps Group,” which was the home then of MathWorks toolbox development.

I worked for Loren directly for about 8 more years. She taught me how to be a MathWorker, how to be a toolbox developer, and how to think about MATLAB.

Loren is kind of a global rock star in the world of MATLAB. I got an early sense of this when I attended the annual AGU conference with her one year. Trying to cross the huge exhibit hall, we were stopped about every 10 feet by someone who recognized Loren and wanted to say hi. In the last decade, Loren has traveled the world and met with every kind of MATLAB user in just about every place MATLAB users can be found, and she always receives an enthusiastic welcome.

At MathWorks, we like to think that we are accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Loren, with your influence on the design and trajectory of MATLAB; with the many people (including me) whom you have directly and indirectly brought into the company; with the scientists and engineers all around the world using MATLAB; and with 17 years of the Art of MATLAB, you’ve been accelerating the pace for 35 years.

Congratulations, Loren, and best wishes on your retirement!

MATLAB Central bloggers meeting, 2010
Far left: Loren
Far right: Steve