A
Hollywood biopic about the life of computer pioneer Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) would go something like this:
a young professor abandons the ivy-covered walls of academia to serve her country in the Navy after Pearl Harbor and finds
herself on the front lines of the computer revolution. She works hard to succeed in the all-male computer industry,
and is almost overcome by personal challenges but survives them, and ends her career as a celebrated elder stateswoman of
the information age, a heroine to thousands, hailed as the inventor of computer programming. In Grace Hopper
and the Invention of the Information Age, Dr. Kurt Beyer goes beyond the screenplay-ready story to reveal a
more authentic Hopper, a vibrant, complex, and intriguing woman whose career paralleled the meteoric trajectory of the postwar
computer industry.
The first week in December is chosen for “National Computer Science Education Week” in honor of Grace Murray Hopper
On October 20th Congress passed House Resolution 558, naming the first week in December as “National ComputerScienceEducationWeek” in honor of Grace Murray Hopper, one of the outstanding pioneers in the field of computerscience, who was born on December 9, 1906. She engineered new programming
languages and pioneered standards for computer systems which laid the foundation
for many advances in computerscience
from the late 1940’s through the 1970s. In 1971, ACM established the annual Grace Murray Hopper Award for Outstanding Young Computer Professional to recognize
contributions made by computer professionals who were 35 years of age or less,
selected on the basis of a single recent major technical or service contribution.
Please support your local book stores and pick up a copy of Grace Hopper and
the Invention of the Information Age. The book tells the store of the first 30 years of the computer revolution, and
the critical role that Grace Hopper played during this period.
The Silicon Valley Computer History Museum hosted a lunchtime conversation between author Kurt Beyer
and Northern California Public Broadcasting’s Linda O’Bryon. The event was sponsored by SAP and was attended
by 400 attendees, many of whom worked in the computer industry.
Click To See TV Show
Press: Here’ is a Sunday morning news roundtable discussion
show featuring the top names in Silicon Valley's technology industry and world class technology reporters from The New York
Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, Businessweek, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, NPR, the BBC and Fortune.
USAA Nexus Speaker Series
Kurt Beyer discussed the contributions of Grace Hopper at USAA's Distinguished
Speaker Series in San Antonio. Click Here for a list of talks and lectures near you.
Booklist names Grace Hopper and the Invention
of the Information Age a Top Ten Science and Technology book for 2009.
"The obsessions of this stellar group of science writers—including polar
bears, a missing aviator, dawn, computer programming, dogs, and antimatter—inspired a year’s worth of significant
and intriguing books."Click Here
Author Kurt Beyer Interviewed by Smithsonian
The Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation interviewed author Kurt Beyer about
the career of Grace Hopper, the history of the computer industry, the process of innovation, and the nature of invention.
