Grace Hopper

Birth and Death

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was born on December 9th, 1906 in New York. She died on January 1st, 1992 in Arlington County, VA

Major Academic Events

Grace Hopper earned her Bachelor's Degree from Vassar College and her Master's and PhD in mathematics from Yale.

Contributions to Computer Science

Grace Hopper is most known for the development and creation of the FLO-MATIC and COBOL computer languages. She first wrote the FLO-MATIC language in 1955 for the UNIVAC I computer to use. Four years later in 1959, Hopper helped develop the COBOL language which was partly based off of the FLO-MATIC language. COBOL (and FLO-MATIC, which had basically merged into COBOL) was a English-like computer language and is still used in business and finance today. Besides that, Hopper also designed one of the first linkers, which was able to take multiple files and link them into one single, executable file and worked on the MARK I computer.

Awards and achievements

In 2016 she was posthumously (meaning after death) awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Resources

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Grace-Hopper

https://news.yale.edu/2017/02/10/grace-murray-hopper-1906-1992-legacy-innovation-and-service

https://www.biography.com/scientist/grace-hopper