I first found out about Ada Lovelace Day through Boing Boing, and I’ve been thinking long and hard about the women I want to write about.
And the worst part about it is that I can’t think of a single woman to write about. Everyone knows there are no girls on the internet, and if there are, they’re probably camwhores. Not so!
When I first started to use the internet seriously, I got very interested in HTML and web coding. There weren’t a whole lot of websites run by females back then, at least not that I could tell. One of the first sites I remember seeing was Emby Quinn’s left.of.center. This, along with a handful of others, inspired me to write and design my own “personal” website. Luckily for everyone, that site is long gone, but its most recent incarnation lives on…if you can find it.
Why is it so hard to find information about women in technology? I wish I knew. Ms. Lovelace was one of the first women to code for computers, way back in the days of Charles Babbage. For me, it’s easier to write about women in science. I’d originally wanted to write about some of my role models, female professors in my department – Dr. Stefanie Brachfeld and Dr. Sandra Passchier, both of whom do research on Antarctic sediment cores. Dr. Brachfeld specializes in magnetism and paleoclimactic records, and Dr. Passchier not only blogged about her most recent trip to Antarctica, she specializes more in sediment itself and microfossils (and occasionally macrofossils) found inside. Not only that, but I’m working with her this semester teaching Historical Geology – and it’s been quite an interesting experience! 
Who are your female tech-heroes? Who are your scientific role models of the female persuasion? Or, if you have none of those, what have you done to impact the history (or future) of technology?
[...] ALLIED by Jeneane Sessum put an intriguing blog post on Women In Technology: Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day 2009Here’s a quick excerptOr, if you have none of those, what have you done to impact the history (or future) of technology? [...]
When I was at MSU, one of my professors was Dr. Dollman. She was quite the science-tech person, back in 1971, having served on the President’s science board and all sorts of other nifty things. She had 7 doctorates, one in astrophysics I think and one on international law. It was a long time ago and I didn’t know those things existed.
What I do remember is that she was one of the folks who discovered that blue eyed pilots during WWII couldn’t see the red landing lights on carriers very well, while brown-eyed ones could, so they changed to amber lights and everybody could see them better. Saved a lot of blue-eyed boys from going over the side.
I can’t seem to find out anything about her online. But I admired her so much, I almost wished I could do math. Instead, I have a kid who can. That’s all right by me.
It’s good to see that even a crusty old site like mine can inspire others. Thanks for the mention, and keep rocking the world like a 10.5.