Hello New Jersey TSA! Hopefully everyone is having a great year so far, considering that the end of the school year is getting closer and closer. This March, we observed Women’s History Month, so let’s talk about two historic females in STEM.
Irmgard FluggeLotz was a revolutionary engineer in the field of aerodynamics. Born in Germany and raised during World War I, FluggeLotz graduated from the Technical School of Hanover to later work at the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt, the premier aerodynamics research institute in Germany at the time. Due to her gender, Irmgard was only permitted to work at the AVA part time and was required to devote half of her time to clerical work. Eventually over time, her work with applied mathematics was recognized and she began working closely with Ludwig Prandtl and Albert Betz, the directors of the institute. Irmgard FluggeLotz is credited with contributing to the Lifting Line Theory and eventually went on to become a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University in California.
And secondly my favorite female scientist, Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper was a computer scientist and programmer for the United States Navy. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Physics from Vassar College and receiving her Doctorate in Mathematics from Yale University, RDML Hopper was a professor of Mathematics at Vassar. “Amazing Grace,” as she had come to be known, then was sworn into the United States Navy and served as a computer scientist through World War I. She worked on the Mark I computer and is credited with inventing the first compiler for a computer programming language. After the war, RDML Hopper continued to work under her Navy Contract and continued research at Harvard. She eventually retired and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clearly, women have had a great impact on the world as we know it today. Due to an awesome amount of amazing women, the world has changed for the better. Hopefully you learned something from this post! See you all at the State Conference!