FAMOUS FEMALE INVENTORS
1. HEDY LAMARRE
born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, 9 November 1914 – 19 January 2000)[a] was an Austrian and American inventor and film actress. During her film career, Lamarr co-invented the technology for spread spectrum and frequency hopping communications with composer George Antheil.[3] This new technology became important to America's military during World War II because it was used in controlling torpedoes. Those inventions have more recently been incorporated into Wi-Fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology,[4][5][6] and led to her being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
2. ADA LOVELACE
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron and now commonly known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Because of this, she is regarded as the first computer programmer.
3. GRACE HOPPER
Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral.[1] She was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944,[2] and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language,[3][4][5][6][7]and the one of those who popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages. She is credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (inspired by an actual moth removed from the computer). Owing to the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace".[8][9] The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC.
4. ANNIE EASLEY
Annie J. Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was an African-American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist.[1] She worked for the Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). She was a leading member of the team which developed software for the Centaur rocket stage and one of the first African-Americans in her field. Her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies, supported the Centaur high-energy upper rocket stage, determined solar, wind and energy projects, identified energy conversion systems and alternative systems to solve energy problems.[2] Her energy assignments included studies to determine the life use of storage batteries, such as those used in electric utility vehicles. Her computer applications have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer the improvement over commercially available technologies. She retired in 1989 (some sources say 1991).
5. MARIE CURIE
Marie Skłodowska-Curie ( 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, the only person to win twice in multiple sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
She was born Maria Salomea Skłodowska. Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined[3]), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres.
6. MÁRIA TELKES
Mária Telkes (December 12, 1900 – December 2, 1995) was a pioneering Hungarian-American scientist and inventor who worked on solar energy technologies.
Telkes worked as a biophysicist in the United States; and, from 1939 to 1953, she was involved in solar energy research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Telkes is known for creating the first thermoelectric power generator in 1947, designing the first solar heating system for the Dover Sun House in Dover, Massachusetts,[2][3] and the first thermoelectric refrigerator in 1953 using the principles of semiconductor thermoelectricity.
She was a prolific inventor of practical thermal devices, including a miniature desalination unit for use on lifeboats, which used solar power and condensation to collect potable solar still.
One of her specialties were phase-change materials, including molten salts to store thermal energy. She lectured widely in a rather pronounced Hungarian accent that sounded like one of the Gabor sisters. Fortunately, she had a ready sense of humor. One of her materials of choice was sodium sulfate Glauber's salt. After a lecture in Texas, a student came up to her, intrigued and asked, "Where can I get some of your 'global' salts ?"
Telkes is considered one of the founders of solar thermal storage systems, earning her the nickname, "sun queen".[1] She moved to Texas in the 1970s and consulted with a variety of start-up solar companies, including Northrup Solar, which subsequently became ARCO Solar, and eventually BP Solar.
7. MARYAM MIRZAKHANI
Stanford's Maryam Mirzakhani wins Fields Medal
Maryam Mirzakhani is the first woman to ever win the Fields Medal – known as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics" – in recognition of her contributions to the understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces.
Maryam Mirzakhani is an Iranian mathematician working in the United States. Since 1 September 2008, she has served as a professor of mathematics at Stanford University.
