One of the leading women in the IT field, American scientist Grace Hopper, made significant contributions to computer science and inadvertently coined the term “bug”. In 1947, a moth became trapped in the Mark II computer, causing it to malfunction. Grace discovered and removed the insect, documenting the incident in a technical journal with the note “the first case of a bug”. Since then, the term “bug” has been used in the field to refer to software errors.
This is, of course, one of the smallest and least significant contributions of Grace Hopper to the field of IT. She demonstrated her talents as a scientist and inventor from an early age. At just seven years old, she had already disassembled seven alarm clocks to understand their mechanisms. By the age of sixteen, she experienced what she considered a minor setback in her biography—her lack of proficiency in Latin cost her the chance to study at Vassar College. Nevertheless, in 1928, she not only graduated from Vassar with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics but also went on to teach there.
This was just the beginning of her success. In 1943, as an exception, Grace’s volunteer application to join the U.S. Navy Reserve was accepted, and she contributed to the development of programs for the Mark I computer at Harvard University. Six years later, Hopper, along with the UNIVAC I programming team, developed the A-0 compiler. In 1959, she created the COBOL programming language, which is still widely used in business applications today.
At the time of her retirement, Hopper was the oldest active-duty officer in the U.S. Navy, holding the rank of admiral. She served for more than 79 years.
After her retirement Grace Hopper was not given any rest and was appointed as a senior consultant to Digital Equipment Corporation. She continued to work and teach in that position until her death in 1992.
