Ada Lovelace

'Imagination is the Discovering Faculty, pre-eminently. It is that which penetrates into the unseen worlds around us, the worlds of Science'. 

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was born in London and showed her gift for mathematics at an early age. As an aristocratic girl and with the encouragement of her mathematically inclined mother, she received instruction from Augustus de Morgan, a famous mathematician and logician, William Frend, a social reformer, William King, the family's doctor and Mary Somerville, one of the few women scientists of their time. She translated an article on an invention by Charles Babbage, and added her own comments. Because she introduced many computer concepts, she is considered the first computer programmer.