Adele Goldberg

Co-developer of the programming language Smalltalk-80 and various concepts related to object-oriented programming, Goldberg conducted this work as a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. She...

Edith Clarke

Pioneer of electrical engineering and the inventor of the Clarke calculator, Clarke broke barriers as the first woman to earn an M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT. Clarke studied mathematics and astronomy at...

Kathleen (Kathe) Spracklen

Co-programmer of the Chafitz ARB Sargon 2.5, the first commercial dedicated chess computer with an Auto Response Board, Spracklen is an American mathematician, computer scientist, and microcomputer chess pioneer. Born in Grand Rapids,...

Evelyn Boyd Granville

Part of the IBM team responsible for formulating orbit computations and computer procedures for NASA's Projects Vanguard and Mercury, Granville was also one of the first African-American women to receive a Ph.D....

Margaret R. Fox

Member of the technical staff of the Electronic Computer Laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards, Fox graduated from Wisconsin State College in 1940 and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1943,...

Barbara Liskov

A pioneer in object-oriented programming, Liskov's work in programming methodology has affected all aspects of modern computing, including programming languages, object-oriented programming, and software robustness to hacking. She designed CLU, an object-oriented...

Ginny Strazisar

Builder of the ARPANET gateway software, Strazisar wrote the first internetworking router (then called "gateway") software for the new TCP/IP protocols. On August 27, 1976, the "bread truck"—as it was often called—first...

Christiane Floyd

The first female professor of computer science in Germany, Floyd achieved that distinction in 1978. An Austrian computer scientist, she is also recognized as a pioneer of evolutionary participatory software design, an...

Diane P. Pozefsky

Leader of the IBM team that developed APPN and AnyNet architectures, which broke the barriers between TCP/IP and SNA networking technologies, Pozefsky was named an IBM Fellow in 1994 in recognition of...

Ruchi Sanghvi

The first female engineer hired by Facebook, Sanghvi later founded her own company, Cove, in 2011, alongside two co-founders. Dropbox acquired Cove in 2012, and Sanghvi joined Dropbox as VP of Operations,...

Susan Kare

Creator of many of the interface elements for the Apple Macintosh, Kare is an artist and graphic designer whose iconic work includes the Lasso, the Grabber, and the Paint Bucket icons, and...

Laura Haas

Best known for her work on the Starburst query processor, from which DB2 UDB was developed, Haas became a 2009 IBM Fellow and has served as Director of Computer Science at IBM...

Kathleen (Kay) McNulty Mauchly Antonelli

One of the six original programmers of the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, Antonelli helped lay the foundations of modern computing. Kathleen (Kay) McNulty was born on February 12, 1921, in...

Maria Klawe

Known for her advocacy for women in STEM fields, Klawe served as the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College from 2006 to 2023. Prior to that role, she served as Dean of...

Janet Emerson Bashen

Regarded as the first African American woman to obtain a web-based software patent, Bashen earned that distinction through her invention of LinkLine, a web-based EEO software application designed to assist with equal...

Nancy Hafkin

A pioneer of networking and electronic communications in Africa, Hafkin spearheaded the Pan African Development Information System (PADIS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) from 1987 until 1997. She...

Megan Smith

Named in 2014 as the third U.S. Chief Technology Officer and the first woman to hold that position, Smith served as Assistant to the President under Barack Obama until January 2017, succeeding...

Shari Trewin

Developer of a keyboard configuration tool for individuals with motor impairments, Trewin is an HCI researcher at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, New York, whose long-standing research focus has been in...

Arlene Joy Harris

Pioneer of the first automated cellular service activation systems now used globally in retail locations to remotely and instantly activate cellular phones, Harris is also known as the "First Lady of Wireless"...

Ida Rhodes

A member of the influential circle of women at the heart of early computer development in the United States, Rhodes was an American mathematician who shaped the field during its foundational years.