Margaret Hamilton

Biography

Margaret Hamilton was born in 1936 in Indiana, and is a computer scientist, one of the first software programmers, and helped write the code for the command and lunar modules used on the Apollo missions.

She studied mathematics and philosophy at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she met her husband, James Hamilton, graduating in 1958. She then taught high school mathematics before moving to Boston where she accepted a job at MIT, programming software to predict the weather.

She joined MIT's Lincoln Laboratory in the early 1960s and was involved in the SAGE project, the first U.S. air defense system. She then worked at MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory developing software for NASA. She worked on developing the software for the guidance and control systems of the in-flight command and lunar modules of the Apollo missions. This crucial software helped in the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and those following.

She left MIT in the mid 70s and cofounded Higher Order Software and established Hamilton Technologies 10 years later. Hamilton received NASA's Exceptional Space Act Award in 2003 and was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Further Reading

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Hamilton-American-computer-scientist