Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral whose pioneering work on programming languages, including developing the first compiler, helped shape the foundations of modern computer science.
Hopper joined the U.S. Navy Reserve during World War II and was assigned to work on the Harvard Mark I computer, one of the earliest large-scale automatic calculators, beginning her long career in computing.
In 1952, she developed the first compiler, a program that translates written instructions into machine-readable code, a breakthrough that made programming far more accessible and laid groundwork for modern programming languages.
Hopper's work directly influenced the development of COBOL, one of the earliest widely used programming languages for business applications, and she remained an influential advocate for accessible programming until her death in 1992.