Mary Kenneth Keller (1914? -1985) Was the first person in the United States to obtain a Ph.D. in Computer Science , at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, in June 1965 , her thesis was titled “Inductive Inference of Computer Generated Patterns.” , entered the Order of Sisters of Charity in 1932 and professed her vows in 1940 .
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Work as a researcher
- 2 Death
- 2 Source
- 3 External links
Biographical synthesis
Mary Kenneth Keller was a nun. She entered the Order of the Sisters of Charity in 1932 , aged 18, and professed her vows in 1940 , making her feat even more impressive. He put his habits aside to pursue a profession that is still largely male today and went where no man had ever gone before.
She studied Higher Mathematics at DePaul University, later did a Master of Physics-Mathematics, was admitted in 1958 at the prestigious Dartmouth University which broke its rule of admitting only men so that she could work in the computer science department.
Thanks to this, he was able to take part in the development of BASIC, the first computer language that tried to bring programming, until then only available to scientists and mathematicians, to students and other average users. Such was its influence that it is at the base of the languages that Paul Allen and Bill Gates used years later in their Windows operating system.
But it is not because of this advance, which is usually not linked to his name, that Kenneth Keller would become part of history. Years later, in 1965 , he would obtain the first doctorate in computer science in the United States from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to research by Ralph L. London that settled the controversy in this regard. The first in capital letters, even before Irving C. Tan, the first male to obtain – although it is true that shortly after – the same degree.
Work as a researcher
After becoming a doctor at age 51, Sister Kenneth Keller continued to pursue research, wrote four books, founded the computer science department at Clarke University , Iowa, and led it for twenty years, with special dedication to promoting the use of technology in education.
Death
Sister Keller passed away in January 1985, at the age of 71, after a long and distinguished career. That has not been fully recognized, but the history of technology will be a little fairer with it.
