Grace Hopper

A pioneer in multiple facets of computer programming, Grace Hopper was a computer scientist and a United States Navy rear admiral. From creating the first linker to inventing a widely used machine-independent programming language, Hopper was an amazing, ingenious woman.

Born in New York City in 1906, Hopper, from the beginning, was inquisitive. She used to disassemble alarm clocks to see how they functioned. At 16, she applied to Vassar College, but her test scores were too low. Thus, she tried again and was accepted the next year. Majoring in mathematics and physics, she graduated in 1928 and decided to obtain her master's degree from Yale University. Hopper did not stop there, however; she earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale in 1934. After finishing her studies, she began to teach mathematics at Vassar College.

During World War II, Hopper tried to enlist in the Navy, but they denied her request because she was too valuable as a mathematician. Despite this, Hopper was determined to serve, so she got a leave of absence from Vassar and an exemption from the Navy. She was sworn into the United States Navy Reserve and volunteered to serve in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Along with Howard Aiken, she served on the Mark I computer programming staff and wrote three papers on the Mark I. Hopper even rejected a full professorship at Vassar because she wanted to keep working as a research fellow for the Navy at the Harvard Computation Lab.

In 1949, Hopper started working for Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation as a senior mathematician and helped to develop the UNIVAC I which was the first known large-scale electronic computer to be on the market in 1950. Because people cannot understand machine code easily, she recommended the revolutionary idea of creating a programming language that used English words, and the computer would translate it. While waiting for her proposal to be accepted, she published her first paper on the compilers in 1952. Finally, in the 1950s, she was able to create her original compiler, the A compiler. Also, because most people did not understand data processors, she developed COBOL, a computer language for data processors, which is the major language used today.

One interesting fact about computer "bugs" involves Hopper when she was working on a computer at Harvard University in 1947. Hopper and her associates discovered a moth that was stuck in the relay; as a result, it was not working. Because of this experience, the concept of a computer "bug" was born. From now on, when you encounter a computer bug, think of Grace Hopper!

A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things.

At the beginning of her career, Hopper could have remained a professor at Vassar College, but she chose to "sail out to sea" in pursuit of her dreams of joining the Navy and did not let up until she was accepted. Not only was Grace Hopper an essential part of the realm of computer science, but she was also an incredible service to the Navy in a time of war.