User:Dawnh223/sandbox
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Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (née Murray; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral.[1] In 1944, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer [2] and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language.[3][4][5][6][7] She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages.
Grace Murray Hopper | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | "Amazing Grace" |
Born | (1906-12-09)December 9, 1906 New York City, New York, U.S. |
Died | January 1, 1992(1992-01-01) (aged 85) Arlington, Virginia, U.S. |
Place of burial | |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/ | United States Navy |
Years of service | 1943–1966, 1967–1971, 1972–1986 |
Rank | Rear admiral (lower half) |
Awards | Defense Distinguished Service Medal Legion of Merit Meritorious Service Medal American Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal National Defense Service Medal Armed Forces Reserve Medal with two Hourglass Devices Naval Reserve Medal Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumous) |
Alma mater | Yale University |
Owing to her accomplishments and her naval rank, she was sometimes referred to as "Amazing Grace".[8][9] The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper was named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC.[10]
On November 22, 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.[11]