Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper photo

Birth:December 9, 1906

Death: January 1, 1992

Hopper graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College and completed a Master of Arts and later a Ph.D. at Yale university. She later joined the Naval Reserve in 1943 and became a lieutenant after teaching mathematics at Vassar. Afterwards, While working on the Bureau of Ordnance's Computation Project at Harvard university, Hopper developed the first calculator that could do automatic calculations, the Mark I. She also wrote the first detailed manual on operating an embedded software: A Manual of Operation for the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator.

Her calculator provided major progress in creating the first electronic computers. Furthermore, she won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and her other works include helping develop the first commercial computers, UNIVAC I, and writing naval applications for COBOL (common-business-oriented language). One of the most fascinating things about Hopper is that she still remained a part of the navy as a reservist and continued to work at Harvard as a civilian research fellow.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Grace-Hopper

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/grace-hopper

https://president.yale.edu/biography-grace-murray-hopper