Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924 – present)
Evelyn became only the second black woman to hold a PhD in Mathematics, graduating from Yale University in 1949. She was responsible for developing computer software that examined satellites for the Mercury space programs. She later conducted research on calculating orbits for the Computation and Data Reduction Center of Space Technology Laboratories and on the Apollo Project for NASA. She remains a strong advocate for women’s education in technology.
During Women’s History Month this March, ACM is encouraging computing professionals and students to use the hashtag #SheIsWhyICode to share stories of women in computing who have inspired them at any point in their career or education. The stories might range in topic from one’s earliest introduction to computer science to overcoming a recent professional obstacle, and the subjects could vary from luminaries of the computing field to someone’s high school computer science teacher or current boss.