#femalepioneers: Margarete Hamilton
Margaret Heafield Hamilton, born in 1936, is an American computer scientist and systems engineer. She was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. In 1986, she founded her own company that was developed around the Universal Systems Language based on her paradigm of Development Before the Fact (DBTF) for systems and software design. Hamilton has published over 130 papers, proceedings, and reports about the 60 projects and six major programs in which she has been involved.
Hamilton was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama for her work leading the development of on-board flight software for NASA’s Apollo Moon missions. She has published over 130 papers, proceedings, and reports about the 60 projects and six major programs in which she has been involved.
