Margaret Hamilton She/Her

Director of Software Engineering at MIT · ApolloCo-founder & CEO at Higher Order SoftwareFounder & CEO at Hamilton Technologies · Creator of the Universal Systems Language

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States ·

Experience

- Founder & CEO - Hamilton Technologies, Inc. - Mar 1986 – Present - Cambridge, Massachusetts - I created the Universal Systems Language and the 001 Tool Suite: preventing errors before they exist.

- Co-founder & CEO - Higher Order Software - 1976 – Present1976 – 1984 - Cambridge, Massachusetts - With Saydean Zeldin, to take what Apollo taught us to other projects: preventing errors and tolerating faults.

- Director, Software Engineering Division - MIT Instrumentation Laboratory - 1965 – Present1965 – 1976 - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Flight software for Apollo and Skylab, with a team of over 400 people. We took humanity to the Moon.

- Programmer · SAGE project - MIT Lincoln Laboratory - 1961 – 1963 - Lexington, Massachusetts - They gave me the program nobody could get working, commented in Greek and Latin. It worked.

- Programmer - MIT · Department of Meteorology - 1959 – 1961 - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Weather prediction software for Edward Lorenz. Yes, the butterfly effect one.

- Math and French teacher - Public high school - 1958 - Boston, Indiana - Boston, Indiana. The other Boston came later.

Education

Earlham College

BA, Mathematics · Minor in Philosophy

1958

Skills

- Software engineering - She coined the term

- Defensive programming - Endorsed by Lauren Hamilton and Jim Lovell

- Real-time priority scheduling - Endorsed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, 33,500 feet above the Moon

Honors & awards

- Presidential Medal of Freedom - Issued by President Barack Obama · Nov 2016 - The highest civilian honor in the United States.

- NASA Exceptional Space Act Award - Issued by NASA · 2003 - $37,200, the largest award NASA had ever given to an individual.

- Augusta Ada Lovelace Award - Issued by the Association for Women in Computing · 1986 - Named after the first programmer in history.

Languages

- English - Native or bilingual proficiency

- French - Full professional proficiency

- AGC assembly - Native or bilingual proficiency