Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate child born to Lord Byron, was born in 1815. Why do I care?

Because she was the first woman programmer. But I hate programming. So again....why do I care?

Mostly because she was baller. Even her Wikipedia entry screams her coolness. She was a woman with a keen interest in numbers, artificial intelligence, and thinking like a computer. And that's pretty awesome. In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, I joined a petition to write about a woman in science and technology...and while there are oh-so-many I could choose, I wanted to connect her to MIT's history of programming and contributions to science.

Thus - may I present Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, an MIT scholar and the most recent winner of the Vannevar Bush Award, an honor "which annually recognizes an individual who, through public service activities in science and technology, has made an outstanding "contribution toward the welfare of mankind and the nation."

As per her interview with MIT's news service:

"A native of the Bronx, Dresselhaus received her PhD from the University of Chicago, and began her MIT career at the Lincoln Laboratory studying superconductivity; she later switched to magneto-optics, carrying out a series of experiments that led to a fundamental understanding of the electronic structure of semi-metals, especially graphite.

Dresselhaus was the first tenured woman professor at MIT's School of Engineering and was named an Institute Professor in 1985. She has received numerous awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Science and 25 honorary doctorates worldwide."

You can find more out about this amazing woman here and here...I was able to meet her at a graduate women's luncheon, and I didn't realize how important her contributions were to women in science. Mildred, I salute you.