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Nicole-Reine Lepautre was a French mathematician and astronomer. She predicted the return on Halley’s Comet by calculating the timing of a solar eclipse. Her team worked on the predictions for six months. She concluded the comet would come on April 13, 1759, and it arrived on March 13, 1759. This was considered a huge success. -
Ada Lovelace is known as the first programmer because she wrote notes that explained how the notion of a specific engine could transition calculation to computation. Every second Tuesday in October is known as Ada Lovelace Day to celebrate women in STEM. -
Maria Mitchell was the first American scientist to discover a comet. -
Edith Clarke created The Clarke Calculator – a graphical device that solved equations used to send power through electrical transmission lines. This was a contribution to transcontinental telephone communication. She became the first professional female electrical engineer. -
Katherine Johnson manually ran the same equations through her desktop that the machine used to ensure that astronauts were safe before take-off. Their lives were in her hands. She worked with NASA right at the peak of competition to space between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. -
Hedy Lamarr is credited for inspiring modern Wi-Fi. She developed the idea for a secret communication system. Her idea inspired the technology for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. -
Grace Hopper designed a compiler to translate programmer’s instructions into computer codes for the Naval Reserve. After retiring, she still helped standardize the Navy’s computer languages. -
The Women of ENIAC included: Betty Snyder, Betty Jean Jennings, Kathleen McNulty, Frances Spence and Marlyn Meltzer. These women were tasked to program the world’s first general-purpose computer – Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). They revolutionized computer programming. -
Annie Easley worked as a computer programmer supporting NASA. She was involved in developing the code used in researching energy-conversion systems, power technology, and battery technology used for hybrid cars. -
Sister Mary Keller started at the National Science Foundation in the computer science program at Dartmouth College which at the time was an all-male school. She was the first woman to receive a PHD in computer science. Her and her team developed the BASIC (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) computer program. This computer contribution made computer use much more accessible to a broader portion of the population. She is an advocate for women in computer science and working mothers. -
Karen Sparck Jones started to work on information retrieval (IR) and introduced the IDF term weighting which has been adopted by modern systems such as web search engines -
Joan Ball founded and ran the St. James Computer Dating Service (Com-Pat). She translated survey answers about what a prospective lover did not want in a partner through a time-shared computer. Her program would reveal the ‘match’ in the system. -
Mary Wilkes was a computer programmer who designed the system for personal computers. She was the first person ever to be a home computer user. -
Adele Goldberg’s programming language Smalltalk-80 inspired the first Apple desktop. -
Radia Perlman developed a child-friendly education language called TORTIS. She also invented the spinning tree algorithm that could handle large clouds. She is known at the ‘mother of the internet’ and for creating STP which is fundamental for the operation of network bridges. -
Carol Shaw pioneered women for video game design. She worked with Atari and created their best shooter game, River Raid. River Raid was the first game that allowed the shooter to accelerate and slow down all over the screen. -
Elizabeth Feinler helped the Stanford reach institute transition to the domain name system and introduced the domain main protocol. She is to thank for each .com, .net, and .gov that are used daily. -
Gladys West programmed the IBM 7030 “Stretch” computer that delivered refined calculations for a geodetic Earth model, which eventually became known at GPS. -
Stacy Horn created the East Coast Hang-Out (ECHO). It was a platform similar to Twitter or Facebook -
Donna Dubinsky introduced personal digital assistants (PDAs). She created the Palm Pilot. -
Jamie Levy is known as the queen of electronic publishing. Her most popular projects include online magazine publishing, floppy disk distribution with music albums uploaded on them, and an online cartoon series, Cyberslacker. -
Janet Emerson Bashen became the first African American woman to hold a patent for a software invention.
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Marissa Mayer is an information technology executive. From 2012-2017, she served as President and CEO of Yahoo! She is currently working on an artificial intelligence project called Sunshine. -
Ellen K. Pao became CEO of Reddit and founded Project Include, a nonprofit focused on improving diversity in the tech industry. She also filed a lawsuit against her employer for gender discrimination. Although she lost the case, she stirred up conversation about gender discrimination in the tech world. -
Susan Wojcicki has been in the tech industry for over 20 years. She helped found Google and became Google's first marketing manager in 1999. She handled Google's acquisition of YouTube in 2006 and has been the CEO of YouTube since 2014. in 2015, she was described in TIME magazine as The Most Powerful Woman on the Internet. -
Lisa Su is an electrical engineer who is the president and CEO of AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) and has been since 2014. She is known for her work on silicon-on-conductor manufacturing technologies. She has been on the technical staff and been the chief technology officer for several companies. -
Megan Smith was the first female chief technology officer under President Obama. She helped bring the U.S. government’s technology into the 21st century (parts still ran on floppy disks!). She advised President Obama to keep a free, open internet and she created online resources to honor and advocate for women in STEM. -
In the Fortune 500 list this year, there are 41 female CEOs and 6 of them are women of color. This is a record breaking number of both women and women of color. -
Out of the 41 women in the Fortune 500 list, 5 of them are CEOs of tech companies. These women are: Safra A. Catz (Oracle), Kathy J. Warden (Northrop Grumman), Christine A. Leahy (CDW), Lisa Su (AMD) and Nazzic S. Keene (Science Applications International)
