Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin studied physics and chemistry and later earned a
Ph.D. in physical chemistry, which enabled her to travel and teach
around the world. While working at King’s College, Cambridge, she
spent hours studying DNA structure with X-ray diffraction. It was she
who took a photo of DNA and proved it was a double helix. Sadly, her
achievement wasn’t acknowledged at that time. You wonder why? There is
some controversy indicating that Francis Crick and James Watson used
Franklin’s findings as theirs in their own publications. It was quite
some time until she emerged from the shadow of these two powerful men
and her contribution was fully recognized.
Radia Perlman
We couldn’t imagine the world today without the internet, right? Well,
if it weren’t for Radia Perlman, we might not have had it. The Mother
of the Internet, as she’s called, developed the algorithm behind the
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which is fundamental to the operation of
network bridges. She also invented TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection
of Lots of Links) to correct the limitations of STP. A wildly creative
thinker, Dr. Perlman even developed a child-friendly programming
language. She authored a textbook on networking and network security
and holds more than 100 issued patents.
Mae Jemison
As a little girl, Mae Jemison loved science and stargazing and dreamed
of going into space. That dream came true on September 12, 1992. She
became the first African-American woman to travel in space when she
went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. There she
conducted experiments on motion sickness, weightlessness, and bone
cells.As if that weren’t enough, Jemison is a dancer and holds nine
honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the
humanities. In 1993, she resigned from NASA and began her teaching
career. Today, she is founder and president of two technology
companies and focuses on improving healthcare in Africa and advancing
technology in developing countries. Is there anything Mae can’t do?
She’s truly inspiring!
Cynthia Breazeal
0 Talking about space, we mustn’t forget
Cynthia Breazeal, whose software sent Apollo 11 to the moon. Also,
when errors occurred, the software she created managed to save the
lives of the Apollo 11 astronauts – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and
Michael Collins. Besides that, she was one of the first computer
software programmers. She also coined the term software engineer.
Hamilton was a director of the Software Engineering Division of the
MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, and later became the founder and CEO
of Hamilton Technologies, Inc. Hamilton was the recipient of various
honors, including NASA’s Exceptional Space Act Award (2003). You’ve
probably already seen the picture of her alongside Katie Bouman, when
Katie took a picture of the black hole this year.
Cynthia Breazeal
After seeing “Star Wars” for the first time as a young girl, Cynthia
Breazeal began to dream of building personal robots. Guess what? She
did it! Breazeal is a pioneer in Social Robotics and Human Robot
Interaction. She’s developed some of the world’s most famous robotic
creatures – ranging from small hexapod robots to embedding robotic
technologies into familiar everyday artifacts, and creating highly
expressive humanoid robots and robot characters. Jibo, Kismet, and
Leonardo are only some of the famous social robots she’s made.
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