Hopper, Grace Murray (1906-1992), an American computer scientist, worked in the field of programming languages. A programming language is a set of symbols, letters, words, and numbers used for giving instructions to a computer. Early programming languages were often hard to understand and use. Hopper thought that they should be more like everyday languages. In 1952, she developed a system of translating everyday language into instructions that a computer could process. Three years later, she directed the work that led to COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language), one of the most widely used early programming languages.
Hopper was born on Dec. 9, 1906, in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College in 1928 and received a Ph.D degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1934. Hopper joined the United States Navy in 1943, during World War II. Her work on computers began in the Navy and continued in private industry after 1949. She retired from the Navy in 1986. She died on Jan. 1, 1992.
