Grace Hopper: Google doodle for creator of Cobol computer language
The American computer scientist was born 107 years ago and her pioneering work from the 1950s remains important to this day
Today's Google doodle commemorates computer pioneer Grace Hopper.
Born Grace Brewster Murray in New York in 1906, she studied at Vassar College and later became the first woman in the 233-year history of Yale University to earn a doctorate in maths.
She wed Vincent Foster Hopper, a New York University professor, in 1930.
They divorced in 1945 although she kept his surname for the rest of her life.
During the Second World War, she served as a US military researcher.
She worked on a device called the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, which worked out flight trajectories for rockets.
It was ultimately used by Manhattan Project scientists to build the atomic bomb.
It was in the 50s, however, that Hopper invented key software technologies that paved the way for modern day computer languages.
Her powers of persuasion were sufficiently strong to get government agencies and industry to agree on a common business programming language, named Cobol.
Hopper believed that programs should be written in a language that was close to English rather than in machine code or languages close to machine code.
She later served as director of the US Navy Programming Languages Group in the Navy's Office of Information Systems Planning and ultimately rose to the rank of rear admiral.
Hopper died in January 1992 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Her work, however, remains part of everyday life, for when you withdraw money from a cash machine a Cobol program is used.
Born Grace Brewster Murray in New York in 1906, she studied at Vassar College and later became the first woman in the 233-year history of Yale University to earn a doctorate in maths.
She wed Vincent Foster Hopper, a New York University professor, in 1930.
They divorced in 1945 although she kept his surname for the rest of her life.
During the Second World War, she served as a US military researcher.
She worked on a device called the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, which worked out flight trajectories for rockets.
It was ultimately used by Manhattan Project scientists to build the atomic bomb.
It was in the 50s, however, that Hopper invented key software technologies that paved the way for modern day computer languages.
Her powers of persuasion were sufficiently strong to get government agencies and industry to agree on a common business programming language, named Cobol.
Hopper believed that programs should be written in a language that was close to English rather than in machine code or languages close to machine code.
She later served as director of the US Navy Programming Languages Group in the Navy's Office of Information Systems Planning and ultimately rose to the rank of rear admiral.
Hopper died in January 1992 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Her work, however, remains part of everyday life, for when you withdraw money from a cash machine a Cobol program is used.
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