Margaret H. Hamilton, a profoundly influential computer scientist best known for leading the software engineering team at MIT’s Instrumentation Lab during NASA’s Apollo program, died at age 90.
While 90 is a decent number of years, it really goes to show how young the field is in the grand scheme of things. How many professions out there have most of their practitioners’ lives overlapping with those of its most important founding figures?
RIP to a titan of the profession, history will recognise her achievements long after all the systems we maintain stop running.
She worked in a tough field - when women had it even tougher than they do today. Awesome lady.
To add on, “worked” is an understatement. She was the one that coined the term “software engineering.” One of the main founders of the field.
While 90 is a decent number of years, it really goes to show how young the field is in the grand scheme of things. How many professions out there have most of their practitioners’ lives overlapping with those of its most important founding figures?
RIP to a titan of the profession, history will recognise her achievements long after all the systems we maintain stop running.