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Her life
Hopper acomplished many extraordinary things throughout her life. She focused on technology in the early stages of development. -
Grace was born
Grace Hopper was born on December 9, 1906, in New York City. She grew up very privileged and in nice areas of town. She went to good schools and was very bright since she was little. -
Her time at Yale
Grace received her masters in 1930 and then her Ph.D. in 1934 from Yale University. Throughout her time there, she was best known for her development of computer languages, even though her degrees were specifically for mathematics. During this time of her education career at Yale, many women, now more than ever before, where learning for their doctorates and other high education learning. -
New Types of Irreducibility Criteria
While her time at Yale she created her thesis on, New Types of Irreducibility Criteria. This thesis is required for students to get their Ph.D. This dissertation explains the ideas around, The Newtonian polygon. She explains given there's and how they related and intertwine with different computer languages. This is what she researched and spent most of her time doing while at Yale. -
Military work
While a professor at Vassar, the bombing of Pearl Harbor happened. Being a highly educated and strong-willed women, she decided to join the war effort. After being denied deployment, due to her size and age, she kept fighting. Once finally accepted in the war efforts, she joined the U.S.Naval Reserve. Here she was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard University. She was in charge of programming for "Mark I" and wrote a 561 page manual for the specific type of code. -
A-O
Grace Hopper created the A-o system. This system is, "instructions that could translate symbolic mathematical code into machine language." At first, no one would test out or use this way of code. People were convinced that computers could only do arithmetic and not programs. She created this program by recording call numbers and having the computer retrieve the information associated with those numbers. This was the first compiler program she created and worked with. -
Vasser University
By the time she had turned 16, she was enrolled in Vasser University to pursue her mathematic studies. She had a huge impact on the University and on the computer science program as a whole. In fact, "Vassar’s computer science program might not have existed without Hopper" (KUTNER). When asked in the late 50s if Vasser should get into computer science and create a program around computers she responded simply, "I've been waiting for you to wake up". She spoke at the opening for the department. -
COBOL
During her time in the military, a new computer language was being created and introduced, COBOL (common business-oriented language). While many people where not for the new language of code, Grace decided to learn and adapt the language. Once fully understood, she decided to try and integrate COBOL thought the military as well as private sectors of code. Since she was so persistent to get the language well known, it was the most used and needed computer language by the 1970s. -
Retirement from military
Sadly, due to age restrictions, Hopper was forced to retire from the military at the age of 79. Before this, she was the oldest rear admiral in the U.S military. She had created/integrated many programs throughout her time in the armed forces to help efficiency as well as accuracy. Thinking her "retirement" was the end of her military career, she stated that it was, "the saddest day of my life". -
Recalled to active service
Not even seven mouths after being told she needs to retire, Hopper is called back to active service at the age of 60. "Increasing operations in Southeast Asia were taxing the Navy’s capacities, and her help was needed to standardize the Navy’s multiple computer languages." (https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service) -
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award
This award is given annually to a person or group who has exceeded past technological advances in system processing and computer science. Hopper received the award in 1988. She received the award, "For pioneering contributions in information
processing and programming language." -
National Medal of Technology and Innovation
In 1991, Grace Hopper received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation Award. This, unfortunately, being after she had passed. As it says by National Medals, she received the award, "For her pioneering accomplishments in the development of computer programming languages that simplified computer technology and opened the door to a significantly larger universe of users." (https://www.nationalmedals.org/laureates/grace-hopper) -
Presidential Medal of Freedom
In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded Hopper with one of the most prestigious awards in her repertoire. On November 22nd, she received this award to continue on with her legacy. This is the highest award given to civilians based on hard work and lives changed. She was recognized for all her hard work and determination as well as her advanced skills in computer science/data as well as mathematics.
