Jean E. Sammet
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Jean E. Sammet (born 1928) is an American computer scientist who developed the FORMAC programming language in 1962.
She received her B.A. in Math from Mount Holyoke College in 1948 and her M.A. in Math from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949. She received an honorary D.Sc from Mount Holyoke College in 1978.[1]
Sammet was employed by Sperry Gyroscope from 1955 to 1958 where she supervised the first scientific programming group. From 1958 to 1961, she worked for Sylvania as a staff consultant for programming research and a member of the original COBOL group. She joined IBM in 1961 where she developed FORMAC, the first widely used computer language for symbolic manipulation of mathematical formulas. At IBM she did research on the use of restricted English as a programming language and the use of natural language for mathematical programs. She was Programming Technology Planning Manager for the Federal Systems Division from 1968 to 1974, and was appointed Software Technology Manager in 1979.[2]
Sammet founded the ACM Special Interest Committee on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation (SICSAM) in 1965 and was Chair of the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN). She was president of the ACM from 1974 to 1976.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Works
- Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals, 1969 (ISBN 0-13-729988-5)
- Detailed description of Cobol, 1960
[edit] Awards
- 1989: Lovelace Award Recipient, Association for Women in Computing. (archived 2008)
- 1994: Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
- 1997: SIGPLAN Distinguished Service Award (Jan Lee and Jean E. Sammet)
- 2001: Fellow of the Computer History Museum
- 2009: Computer Pioneer Award Recipient (IEEE Computer Society)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Stanley, Autumn, Mothers and Daughters of Invention, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993, p. 683
- ^ "Jean E. Sammet". IEEE Computer Society Awards. http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/sammet. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
- ^ Stanley, Mothers and Daughters of Invention, p. 685
[edit] External links
- "Jean Sammet". California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/inventors/sammet.html. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
- Biography of Jean Sammet - History of Programming Languages website, Murdoch University
- Sammet's participation in UNIVAC conference, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. 171-page transcript of oral history with computer pioneers, including Jean Sammet, involved with the Univac computer, held on 17-18 May 1990. The meeting involved 25 engineers, programmers, marketing representatives, and salesmen who were involved with the UNIVAC, as well as representatives from users such as General Electric, Arthur Andersen, and the U.S. Census.
- Bergin, Thomas J. (Tim), "Jean Sammet: Programming Language Contributor and Historian, and ACM President", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 76-85, January/March, 2009.
