Mothers of Inventions
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- One of the forgotten women who contibuted to science is LEAVITT, HENRIETTA SWAN
- National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees
- Women engineers have contributed significantly in many areas of science.
- Betsy Ancker-Johnson Education
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Recognizing Women’s Contributions to Engineering and Technology Ileana Costea, California State University, Northridge Abstract: The article presents women’s noteworthy contributions to science, technology, and specifically to manufacturing. The role of women in creating a balanced workplace environment is also discussed. Many inventions which are still in use today were made by women: the non-reflective glass, the windshield wiper, noise-less trains, liquid paper, the ubiquitous square-bottom supermarket brown bag, and reducing air and noise pollution methods, to name just a few. Yet, when you look at lists on categories such as inventors, scientists, engineers, Nobel Prizes winners you see mostly men’s names. A few examples of such lists are given below, with women’s names marked in bold. List of famous scientists, in physical sciences: (from http://www.crystalinks.com/scientists.html) Archimedes, Aristotle, Niels Bohn, Nicholas Copernicus, Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, Rene Descartes, Thomas Alva Edison, Albert Einstein, Ben Frankiln, Galilei Galileo, Isaac Newton, Max Planck, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla, List of famous engineers (from http://www.engineeringk12.org/students/fun_section/famous_engineers.htm#engineers): Edwin Howard, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Bessemer, Joseph Armand Bombardier, Philip Condit, Willis Haviland Carrier, William D. Coolidge, Seymour Cray, George de Mestral, Rudolf Diesel, Ray Dolby, Bonnie Dunbar - NASA astronaut, Reginald A. (Aubrey) Fessenden, Sir Sanford Fleming, Henry Ford, Jay W. Forrester, Yuan-Cheng Fung, Robert Hutchings Goddard, Andrew Grove, William Hewlett and David Packard, Beulah Louise Henry ("the lady Edison" for the many inventions), Grace Murray Hopper, a computer engineer, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, Bill Joy, Jack Kilby, William LeMessurier, Elijah McCoy, Guglielmo Marconi, James Morgan, Bill Nye, Kevin Olmstead, Kenneth Olsen, Arati Prabhakar, Ludwig Prandtl, Edmund T. Pratt, Jr., Judith Resnik - Challenger astronaut, electrical engineer, Hyman G. Rickover, Norbert Rillieux, Washington Roebling, Katherine Stinson - the first female graduate of N.C. State University's College of Engineering, Nikola Tesla, Stephen Timoshenko, Theodore von Karman, George Westinghouse, Eli Whitney, Steve Wozniak. List of inventors (from List of Inventors in the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors; in a long list of 209 only the following are women): Emile Berliner, Katherine Blodgett, Bette Nesmith Graham, Erna Schneider Hoover, Margaret Knight, Stephanie Kwolek, Hedy Lamarr, Olivia Poole. A list of women inventors is given at: http://inventors.about.com/od/womeninventors/ . List of inventors who also won the Nobel Prize (from 2000-2005 National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc.): http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/1_4_9_nobel.asp) Luis Walter Alvarez, Frederick Banting, John Bardeen, Gerd Karl Binnig, Baruch S. Blumberg, Walter H. Brattain, Gertrude Belle Elion, Enrico Fermi, Jack S. Kilby, Irving Langmuir, Ernest Orlando Lawrence, Guglielmo Marconi, Kary Mullism, Heinrich Rohrer, Arthur Schawlow, William Bradford Shockley, Charles Hard Townes.
Women have contributed significantly in many areas of science and technology. Yet, many female inventors throughout history have been forgotten completely, concealed or ignored even though products and technologies they devised are used every day. The most interesting case, since this presentation is made in Southern California, is that of Hedy Lamarr. People recall her as a sexy movie star of the 1930s and 1940s. Hardly anybody recalls that she invented a remote-controlled, jam-proof radio communications system for the U.S. military that was patented during World War II. Three categories can be looked when considering this issue of female inventors been forgotten throughout history: legal, economic, and social. (http://invention.smithsonian.org/enterpieces/ilives/womeninventors.htmlINNOVATIVElivs – Exploring the History of Women Inventors by J. E. Bedi.) Legal rights of married women in the early-nineteenth century were virtually non-existent. Women’s inventions were issued to men, women patents were recorded in a man’s name. While the legal status may have deterred or obscured inventions by women, economic considerations fostered it. In the section written in a book about “women and technological change,” Deborah J. Warner, stated that the major thing that motivated women inventors to participate at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was to make money.[Warner, Deborah J., “Women Inventors at the Centennial.” In Dynamos and Virgins Revisited: Women and Technological Change in History, edited by Martha Moore Trescott, p. 104. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1979.]. Social reason include the fact that for many century it was believed that the woman’s place was in the home that it was un-lady like to work go to college or work with men, for a long time women did not have the right to vote, nor to study in high education institutions, especially in “hard fields” of science and technology. In an article in The Washington Post, Heather Salerno presents women as “mothers of invention.” She mentions some of the many female inventors throughout history who have been forgotten completely, concealed or ignored even though products and technologies they devised are used every day. Heather Salerono’s list is long: HYPATIA (370-415 A.D.) [studies in mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy]; SYBILLA MASTERS (died 1720) [created a new way for cleaning and curing corn]; MARY DIXON KIES (early 19th century) [devised a method of weaving straw with silk]; LADY AUGUSTA ADA BYRON, COUNTESS OF LOVELACE (1815-1852) [the world's first computer programmer; originated the concept of using binary numbers]; ELLEN EGLIN (late 19th century) [innovative in the clothes washing field, creating new and improved powders, wringers and machines]; MARGARET KNIGHT (1838-1914) [designed a machine that folded and glued the rectangular-bottom brown paper bags familiar today]; MARY WALTON (late 19th century) [developed air and noise anti-pollution devices]; BEULAH LOUISE HENRY (born 1887) ["Lady Edison" - a large number of inventions and wide spectrum of ideas such as a hair curler, a football inflating device, a bobbin-less sewing machine, numerous contributions to typewriters and the toy industry]; KATHERINE BLODGETT (1898-1979) [developed "invisible" nonreflecting glass]; MARJORIE JOYNER (1896-1994) [was granted a patent for a permanent wave machine]; HEDY LAMARR (born 1913) [co-invented a remote-controlled, anti-jamming communications system, a major contribution to U.S. defense technology]; RUTH HANDLER (born 1917) [created Barbie, the world's most famous doll, and breast prosthesis]; GERTRUDE BELLE ELION (born 1918) [discoveries of medicines that fight leukemia, gout and herpes and a drug that suppresses the immune system, helping the body to accept transplanted tissue; cancer drugs and kidney transplants]; RACHEL FULLER BROWN (1898-1980) [received a patent for Nystatin, the first fungus-fighting drug, antifungal antibiotic]; EDITH M. FLANIGEN (born 1929) [petroleum research - discoveries to convert crude oil to gasoline, in water purification and in environmental cleanup]; ERNA SCHNEIDER HOOVER (born 1926) [created a computerized telephone switching system]; MARY SPAETH (born 1940) [invented the tunable dye laser, which can be manipulated to produce light of different wavelengths and, hence, different colors]; STEPHANIE LOUISE KWOLEK (born 1923) [experimented with a variety of strong fibers and discovered liquid crystalline polymers resulting in the product Kevlar, whose fibers are stronger than steel and is used to make bulletproof vests, fiber-optic cables, outdoor clothing, radial tires and airplane fuselages] It is also forgotten that women had an important contribution in the field of alchemy. One of the forgotten women who contibuted to science is LEAVITT, HENRIETTA SWANAstronomer (1868 - 1921). She was one of the "computers" (in the shape of humans to do repetitive tasks) who worked at the Harvard College Observatory at the beginning of the 20th century. She was hearing impaired but this did not deter her from her studies. She volunteered at Harvard College observatory in 1893 at the age of 25 where she worked on the accurate measurements of the brightness of stars. Her most important work was the discovery of the period-luminosity relation of Cepheid variable stars. "It is worthy of notice", she observed, that "the brighter variables have the longer periods." Cepheids are stars that fade and brighten in a regular fashion. This relation is one of the fundamental building blocks in the yardstick by which astronomers measure distances to galaxies and far-away objects. Interestedly, in 1925 after her death the Swedish mathematician Gösta Mittag-Leffler wrote to her saying he was seriously inclined to nominate her for the Nobel Prize. Unfortunately Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously. Who knows what might have happened had she lived longer. Her work was that important. (text taken from http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/LEAVITT.html). Recently a book was written about her: “Miss Leavitt Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe,” by George Johnson, Great Discoveries. Probably the best know women in the history of science and technology are: Marie Curie (1867-1934; Poland/France – Chemist), Emily Noether (1882-1935; Germany – mathematician), Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972; US – the birth of Ergonomics), and Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992; US – a computer inventor and programmer; Mark computer, COBOL language). This article will not present the discoveries of Marie Curie, given the fact that they are so well known, and both her life and her achievements in science have been thoroughly presented in literature. Biographies and contributions to science and technology of Emily Noter, Lillian Gilbreth, and Gace Hopper are left to reader of this article. Below the discoveries of somewhat less known Lise Meitner, of some women who made direct contributions to manufacturing, to materials sicene and engineering, and some contemporary women inventors will be briefly presented. Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968) was an Austrian physicist who studied radioactivity and nuclear physics. In 1905 she obtained a PhD in physics from the University of Vienna, the first woman to do so at that university. She collaborated with the chemist Otto Hahn for 30 years, studying radioactivity .In 1918, they discovered the element protactinium. In 1923, she discovered the radiation-less transition known as the Auger effect, which is named for Pierre Victor Auger, a French scientist who discovered the effect two years later. In 1926, she became the first female full professor in Germany at the University of Berlin. With the discovery of the neutron in the early 1930s, speculation arose in the scientific community that it might be possible to create elements heavier than uranium (atomic number 92) in the laboratory. A scientific race commenced between Ernest Rutherford in Britain, Irene Joliot-Curie in France, Enrico Fermi in Italy, and the Meitner-Hahn team in Berlin. After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Meitner fled Germany for Sweden. Hahn and Meitner met clandestinely in Copenhagen in November to plan a new round of experiments; in this regard they subsequently exchanged a series of letters. The experiments which provided the evidence for nuclear fission were done at Hahn's laboratory in Berlin. Meitner was the first person to realize that the nucleus of an atom could be split into smaller parts. Uranium had split to form barium and krypton accompanied by the ejection of several neutrons and a large amount of energy, (the latter two products accounting for the loss in mass). In 1938 Meitner did the prediction calculations for a fissile nucleus. Hahn later claimed that his chemistry had been solely responsible for the discovery. Meitner refused an offer to work on the project at Los Alamos, declaring that "I will have nothing to do with a bomb!" 1944, Hahn received a solo Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission. In the opinion of many scientists, Meitner should have shared the prize. Several books were written about her and her discoveries. (The text above about Lise Meitner represents portions of the write-up that appears in the Wikipedia, the free on-line encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner.) Edith Marie Flanigen (http://products.engineering.com/community/academia/women_eng/famous_womeneng.htm#edith) Born in Buffalo, New York (1929) and recently retired (1994), she is one of the most inventive chemists of all time. She has earned 102 U.S. patents for her innovations in the rather esoteric fields of petroleum research and product development. After graduating as class president and valedictorian from D'Youville College in Buffalo, and after gaining an M.S. in Inorganic-Physical Chemistry from Syracuse University (1952), Flanigen began a forty-two year career in research at Union Carbide Corporation and UOP, a joint venture of Union Carbide and AlliedSignal. Her first area of expertise was the identification, extraction and purification of various silicone polymers (chemical compounds), which could then be used in chemical processes. In 1956, Flanigen began working on "molecular sieves": crystal compounds with molecule-sized pores, that can be used to filter and separate the constituent parts of complex mixtures, and as "catalysts," substances that accelerate chemical reactions. In her career, Flanigen invented or developed over 200 different synthetic substances, the most important of which is "zeolite Y," a silicate sieve used to refine petroleum. Petroleum, or "crude oil," found in the earth, must be broken down into its parts (called "fractions") by a process called "catalytic cracking" before it can be used. Gasoline is only one of the lighter fractions of crude oil. Flanigen's zeolites are used as catalysts to optimize the conversion of crude oil to gasoline. Flanigen's work is admittedly complex, but it has many practical benefits. First of all, her innovations have made the production of gasoline in the U.S. and around the world greater, cleaner, and safer. Secondly, her "sieves" are used in other processes, such as water purification and environmental clean-up. Finally, Flanigen's work has other commercial applications: for, she is the co-inventor of a synthetic emerald, produced and marketed by Union Carbide for a number of year. However unknown she may be to the general public, Edith Flanigen is deservedly a living legend to research chemists world-wide.
Stephanie Louise Kwolek’s research with high performance chemical compounds for the DuPont Company led to the development of a synthetic material called Kevlar which is five times stronger than the same weight of steel. Kevlar, patented by Kwolek in 1966, does not rust nor corrode and is extremely lightweight. Many police officers owe their lives to Stephanie Kwolek, for Kevlar is the material used in bullet proof vests. Other applications of the compound include underwater cables, brake linings, space vehicles, boats, parachutes, skis, and building materials. Kwolek was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania in 1923. Upon graduating in 1946 from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) with a bachelor’s degree, Kwolek went to work as a chemist at the DuPont Company. She would ultimately obtain 28 patents during her 40-year tenure as a research scientist. In 1995, Kwolek was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Some interesting and yet not well known manufacturing type contributions by women are: Mary Dixon Kies’s invention for a machine and process for weaving straw with silk, in the early 19th century when bonnets were in much demand. Her invention made the hats cost-effective to produce and the New Eangland’s had business kept the area’s economy strongh through an economic crisis aggravated by the war of 1812. (http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/service/wsf/current/inventions.html). Patsy Sherman (http://products.engineering.com/community/academia/women_eng/famous_womeneng.htm#stephanie) Patsy Sherman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1930. After college graduation, she joined 3M as a research chemist and was assigned to work on fluorochemical polymers. Her work was an essential part of the introduction of 3M’s first stain repellent and soil release textile treatments which have grown into an entire family of products known as Scotchgard® protectors. Sherman regards the serendipitous discovery of Scotchgard® as one of her most significant works because many experts had written that such a product was "thermodynamically impossible." That day in the lab is legendary. Sherman and her colleague, Sam Smith, were working on another project when they observed that an accidental spill on a white tennis shoe would not wash off nor would solvent remove it. The area resisted soiling. They recognized the commercial potential of its application to fabrics during manufacture and by the consumer at home. So go ahead and put your feet up… the dirt will wash off.
In November of 1999 Randice-Lisa "Randi" Altschul was issued a series of patents for the world's first disposable cell phone. Trademarked the Phone-Card-Phone®, the device is the thickness of three credit cards and made from recycled paper products. This is a real cell phone (outgoing messages only) with 60 minutes of calling time and a hands free attachment. You can add more minutes or throw the device away after your calling time is used up. However, with the planned additional magnetic strip the cell phone would double as a credit card, swipeable for purchases with free airtime credits as a bonus. The retail price of the invention should average twenty dollars, with a two or three dollar rebate for returning the phone instead of trashing it. Altschul thought up the invention after being tempted to toss her cell phone out of her car in frustration over a bad connection. She realized cell phones were too expensive to lose or throw away. After clearing the idea with her patent lawyer and making sure no one else had already invented a disposable cell phone, Randi Altschul together with engineer Lee Volte, patented both the disposable cell phone and the super thin technology (STTTM) needed for the Phone-Card-Phone and other intended products. Randi Atschul’s invention is very important in two ways: it is in the direction that modern technology is going, i.e., miniaturization, and also it reflects a contribution that only can be made by a woman, given the different experience that she has than a man. In an article that appears in The New York Times Business section by Teresa Riordan(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/08pate.html) Altschul says “The greatest assest I have over everyone else … is my toy mentality. An engineer’s mentality is to make something last, to make it durable. A toy’s life span is about an hour, then the kid throughs it away.” This leads us to why women are so important in the engineering field. Throughout history women brought their specific experiences, from cooking, cloth making, raising children, taking care of the elderly, the sick, the handicapped. With their vast experience and interest in cooking there is no wonder that women played an important role in alchemy searches. Today, women in industry help balance the working environment: they are better communicators, have more intuition than men, and bring a different point of view and experience. They are different than men and that makes them contribute a lot. Sherman was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame in 1983. So far we looked at famous women or those who made a striking contribution. We must not forget though that women form an important working force in the manufacturing industry. To give just an example, today a very large number of women around the world are employed in the field of electrical and electronics manufacturing in assembling televisions, cellular telephones, computers, and other electrical devices. (See the article at http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/collection/event.php?taid=&id=3456972&lid=1)
[HS-Mothers of I] Heather Salerno, “Though Unsung and Ignored, Women Have Pushed Technology's Frontiers - Mothers of Inventions,” The Washington Post, Wednesday, March 12 1997; Page H01 (http://www.stsci.edu/s tsci/service/wsf/current/inventions.html) http://invention.smithsonian.org/enterpieces/ilives/womeninventors.html INNOVATIVElivs – Exploring the History of Women Inventors by J. E. Bedi. [Warner, Deborah J., “Women Inventors at the Centennial.” In Dynamos and Virgins Revisited: Women and Technological Change in History, edited by Martha Moore Trescott, p. 104. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1979.]. Other sources: * www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/exhibit/
Books about women inventors: * Feminine Ingenuity: Women and Invention in America by Anne L. Macdonald, Ballantine Books: New York, 1992. * Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology by Autumn Stanley, The Scarecrow Press Inc.: New Jersey, 1993. * Women, Technology and Innovation, edited by Joan Rothschild, Pergamon Press Ltd.: New York, 1982. Kevlar
Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar when almost no women were chemists An Interview with Stephanie Kwolek by Jim Quinn Winter 2003 Invention & Technology National Inventors Hall of Fame Inducteeshttp://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0193133.htmlThe National Inventors Hall of Fame, established in 1973 and located in Akron, Ohio, honors the women and men responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social, and economic progress possible. The Class of 2005 inductees have made accomplishments in medicine, engineering, computing, and more.No women inductees in the classes of 2005-2001. The first woman I saw was in the class of 2000: Free, Helen Murray, 1923–, INDICATOR FOR DETECTING GLUCOSE. Her work in diagnostic chemistry led to the development of many tests used in urine testing, including CLINISTIX®, introduced in 1956. Early on at Miles Laboratories, she devised tests to detect glucose, ketone, and bilirubin in urine. The procedures she and her husband, Alfred Free, developed are still used. Today, Helen Free is a high-profile promoter of science education, involved in chemistry awareness programs around the world. Notable Female Scientists http://www.infoplease.com/spot/whmbios2.html http://www.infoplease.com/spot/whmbios2.html Thelma Estrin
When Stephanie Louise Kwolek received http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/51.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Inventors_Hall_of_Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame is an organization that honors important inventors from the whole world. The only prerequisite of induction is being named an inventor on a US patent. Posthumous induction is allowed. It has a museum in Akron, Ohio, and an annual induction ceremony. Inductees are chosen by a national panel of inventors and scientists. There are satellite offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. It is a non-profit organization founded in 1973 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations. As of 2005 there were 221 inductees.
List of inventors (in a a long list of 209 only the following are women): (from List of Inventors in the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors) Emile Berliner, (1851-1929), Germany and USA — the disc record gramophone, Katherine Blodgett, (1898-1979), England — nonreflective glass, Bette Nesmith Graham, (1924-1980), USA — Liquid Paper, Erna Schneider Hoover, (1926-), USA — computerized telephone switching system, Margaret Knight, (1838-1914), USA — machine that completely constructs box-bottom brown paper bags, Stephanie Kwolek, (1923-), USA — Kevlar, Hedy Lamarr, (1913-2000), Austria and USA — Spread spectrum, Olivia Poole, (1889-1975), USA, White Earth Indian Reserve — the Jolly Jumper baby harness http://crux.astr.ua.edu/4000ws/4000WS.html 4,000 years of women in science, in technology and other altogether creative stuff! Did you know that? Science is a traditional role for women. Dr. Deborah Crocker at the University of Alabama and Dr. Sethanne Howard retired from the US Naval Observatory maintain this site. http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Scients.htm B  onnie Dunbar - NASA astronaut who earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in ceramic engineering from the University of Washington and a doctorate in mechanical/biomedical engineering from the University of Houston. While working at Rockwell International, Dr. Dunbar helped to develop the ceramic tiles that enable space shuttles to survive re-entry. She has had an opportunity to test those tiles firsthand as a four-time astronaut, including a stint on the first shuttle mission to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir.
Beulah Louise Henry was known in the 1920s and '30s as "the lady Edison" for the many inventions she patented, including a vacuum ice cream freezer, a typewriter that made multiple copies without carbon paper, and a bobbinless lockstitch sewing machine. Henry founded manufacturing companies to produce her creations, making a fortune in the process.
Inventors Hall of Fame, Akron Ohio No women inductees in the classes of 2005-2001. The first woman I saw was in the class of 2000: Free, Helen Murray, 1923–, INDICATOR FOR DETECTING GLUCOSE. Her work in diagnostic chemistry led to the development of many tests used in urine testing, including CLINISTIX®, introduced in 1956. Early on at Miles Laboratories, she devised tests to detect glucose, ketone, and bilirubin in urine. The procedures she and her husband, Alfred Free, developed are still used. Today, Helen Free is a high-profile promoter of science education, involved in chemistry awareness programs around the world. Women engineers have contributed significantly in many areas of science.Being elected to the National Academy of Engineering or NAE is one of the highest honor that can be given to an engineer. In 1965, Lillian Gilbreth became the first woman engineer elected to the NAE. In 1973, Grace Hopper became the second woman engineer elected. Mildred Dresselhaus was the third woman engineer elected in 1974. Betsy Ancker-Johnson was the fourth woman engineer elected to the NAE in 1975. To date, 2,330 male engineers have been elected to the NAE since 1964 compared to the only 37 women engineers that have been elected. http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventors/a/Ancker_Johnson.htm Betsy Ancker-Johnson Educationhttp://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventors/a/Ancker_Johnson.htmBeing elected to the National Academy of Engineering or NAE is one of the highest honor that can be given to an engineer. In 1965, Lillian Gilbreth became the first woman engineer elected to the NAE. In 1973, Grace Hopper became the second woman engineer elected. Mildred Dresselhaus was the third woman engineer elected in 1974. Betsy Ancker-Johnson was the fourth woman engineer elected to the NAE in 1975. To date, 2,330 male engineers have been elected to the NAE since 1964 compared to the only 37 women engineers that have been elected. Betsy Ancker-Johnson EducationYüklə 199,5 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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race Murray Hopper, a computer engineer and Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, developed the first computer compiler in 1952 and the computer program language COBOL. Upon discovering that a moth had jammed the works of an early computer, Hopper popularized the term "bug." In 1983, by special presidential appointment, Hopper was promoted to the rank of Commodore. Two years later, she became one of the first women to be elevated to the rank of Rear Admiral. In 1986, after forty-three years of service, RADM Grace Hopper ceremoniously retired on the deck of the USS Constitution. At 80 years, she was the oldest active duty officer at that time. She spent the remainder of her life as a senior consultant to Digital Equipment Corp. Hopper received numerous honors over the course of her lifetime. In 1969, the Data Processing Management Association awarded her the first Computer Science Man-of-the-Year Award. She became the first person from the United States and the first woman to be made a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 1973. She also received multiple honorary doctorates from universities across the nation. The Navy christened a ship in her honor. In September 1991, she was awarded the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest honor in engineering and technology.
atherine Stinson - the first female graduate of N.C. State University's College of Engineering. Initially denied admission as a freshman, Stinson went on to become one of N.C. State's most distinguished and active alumni. Graduating vice president of her class, she was soon hired by the Civil Aeronautics Administration as its first female engineer. Later, she served as technical assistant chief in its Engineering and Manufacturing Division until her retirement in 1973. She went on to found the Society of Women Engineers.