"When I saw Answers.com in its current format, I was overjoyed. Answers.com is a true leader in this industry and responds to the huge need for presenting reference information in a pleasing, understandable format. I am excited to be a part of this dynamic team and to have the opportunity to create more offerings for every person who loves to learn," said Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer, as it was announced that GuruNet Corporation, creators of the popular answer-based search engine, announced today that it has hired Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer to its Content Development team for Answers.com.

Dr. Barbara Ann Kipfer has been a lexicographer and linguist for 25 years and is the author of more than 30 books, including: "The Order of Things and How It Happens" (Random House), "14,000 Things to be Happy About" (Workman) and "Page-a-Day" calendars based on it. Her other books are "Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus," "21st Century Spelling Dictionary," "21st Century Manual of Style" (Dell/Laurel), "Roget's International Thesaurus Sixth Edition and Dictionary of American Slang" (HarperCollins), "Sisson's Word and Expression Locater" (Prentice Hall), "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology" (Kluwer Plenum), "The Flip Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus of Phrases," and "Roget's Descriptive Word Finder" (Writer's Digest). She has also authored "Instant Karma," "The Wish List," "1,400 Things for Kids to be Happy About," and "8,789 Words of Wisdom" for Workman.

She previously served as Managing Editor/Senior Lexicographer of Lexico (Dictionary.com) and has worked for such companies as Ask Jeeves, Idealab, Mindmaker, General Electric Research, IBM Research, Wang, Bellcore (Telcordia), Cymfony, Textwise, and Knowledge Adventure. She has extensive experience in the areas of reference content creation, question-answering, reference publishing, natural language processing, artificial intelligence, information retrieval research, and the development of ontologies/hierarchies.

Kipfer holds an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Exeter (UK), a Ph.D. in Archaeology and Master of Philosophy in Buddhist Studies (Greenwich University), and a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education (Valparaiso University). She is currently being mentored in historical linguistics by Professor Terry Hoad of the University of Oxford.

"For years, I have been a proponent of developing an all-in-one reference site," she explained.