At the age of seven, she was already taking apart alarm clocks, determined to figure out how they worked. Often deemed “The Queen of Code,” Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral.
A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944, and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language. She 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). She removed the first “computer bug” on September 9, 1947.
Owing to the breadth of her accomplishments and her naval rank, she is sometimes referred to as “Amazing Grace.” Please see below for links to articles and other resources about Grace – including an entertaining clip of her appearance on the David Letterman Show.
Featured below is a creative illustration of Grace by artist Rachel Ignotofsky. Click the link below for more about the illustration
Grace Hopper Illustration by artist Rachel Ignotofsky