Tracy Quan, a freelance writer residing in New York City, was the
human confederate in the 1996 Loebner Prize competition and a 
judge in the 1997 contest.  Miss Quan is a contributing editor to 
the Webzine, _Urban Desires_<http://desires.com/>.  
Her articles have also appeared  in _Lingua Franca_,  _Congressional
Quarterly_ and numerous  other publications.

A confessed civilian in all things electronic, she is the daughter of a
computer programmer. "Dad was programming in the early 1960s, and my
brother and I often played with the pastel- colored punch cards he
brought home. Nightly, he told us fairy tales about a mathematical
wizard called Zorn whose faithful companion was the Lemma. Zorn and the
Lemma were never apart. A set of complex polynomials lived on Zorn's
front lawn, enclosed by an invisible circle. Much as we enjoyed these
stories -- and we did -- his fascination with mathematical questions
never rubbed off on me. In fact, he sometimes marvelled at my mediocrity
in the sciences," Miss Quan recalls, "especially when called upon to
assist in the memorization of multiplication tables -- pleasant memories
for me, but not, perhaps, for him."

Miss Quan regards her own PC as "a sophisticated word- processing
machine, period." Despite her exposure as a child to early computer
culture, she did not use a computer professionally until the late 1980s.
Thus, she is viewed by Mr. Loebner as, "the ideal human marker for this
project."

For more information, contact:

Tracy Quan
E-mail: <quan@panix.com>

Urban Desires <http://desires.com/>
Voice: (212) 924-5669
E-mail: <gaby@desires.com>