Grace Murray Hopper

Grace Murray Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and mathematician who served on Vassar College's faculty from 1931-1944. She taught mathematics while pursuing doctoral studies, later revolutionizing computing through compiler invention and COBOL development.

Education: Earned BA in Mathematics and Physics from Vassar (1928), MA (1930) and PhD (1934) in Mathematics from Yale University.

Research contributions: Created the first compiler (A-0) enabling symbolic programming, developed FLOW-MATIC programming language, and spearheaded COBOL standardization. Her conceptualization of machine-independent programming languages transformed business computing.

Awards: Received the first Computer Science Man-of-the-Year Award (1969), became the first woman Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (1973), and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Navy destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) bears her name.

Military service: Commissioned Navy lieutenant (1944) and retired as Rear Admiral (1986) after pioneering computer applications for military systems.