Grace Hopper

  • Grace Hopper Earns her PhD

    Grace Hopper had previously earned her master's at Yale in 1930, but four years later, she had managed to get her PhD in mathematics. This was a very important first step in her career. Her college life had consisted of involvement in a sorority and of course, academics. Her work was only beginning to pay off at this point in her life, as her career would continue to expand for many years to come.
  • Hopper joins the US Military (Navy)

    After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hopper decided to contribute to World War ll. Many people were uncertain of her abilities at this point, as she was a young, small woman whose skills were unknown. At first, she was limited to the standard "woman" jobs, but eventually she was moved to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard. This is when she really began coding for the military, and when they really began letting her.
  • The MARK 1

    In 1945, the MARK 1 had been in the works for a year, and would continue for another year after. Hopper was able to contribute greatly to its creation, as she is recognized as one of the main three coders who programmed the MARK 1. This was a major step for her career, and for all woman in computer science, a male-dominated field, as the MARK 1 was the first electromechanical computing machine in the United States.
  • Hopper creates a new computer language

    From about 1950-1959, Hopper was pushing for a new form of coding. He believed that the symbols being used to program at the time were overly complicated, and that they could expand the community of coders by creating a new, English-based computing language. She was met with much doubt, but she worked on her English-based language, FLOW-MATIC, for many years.