Great line from that last link: "Prior to 1965 ... there were none, and after 1965 there was a nun."
I was pretty ignorant about this before today. What I've learned today is (1) that there are several competing claims for who has the first PhD in Computer Science (or the first PhD by an American, or Woman...), (2) all of those claims depend not on the quality of the work by the person but rather by whether something counts as "computer science" (does it have to be issued by a Computer Science department? Department with Computer Science in the name? Can the degree just say it's for Computer Science? Does it depend on the thesis topic?), and (3) for the most part none of the candidates really care too much about the distinctions about who was 1st.
But it is an interesting exercise in learning about computer scientists that I didn't know much about before.
The first woman to get a PhD in computer science was a Wren, not a nun: Beatrice Worsley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_Worsley of note
> When World War II ended, Worsley was the only Wren at the NRE to choose to remain in service.
She is tragically forgotten despite she wrote the first program to run on a Von Neumann architecture computer (that being the EDSAC) which you could simplify to say she wrote the first computer program as we today understand such.
Also, she got the first PhD in CS when CS wasn't even a thing yet.
As many other commenters have noted, there is a culture of many women religious receiving advanced degrees. One of my college friends who got his PhD in political science at MIT was surprised to discover that there were two women religious in his grad school cohort.
In parallel terms, "monk" and "brother" are often used interchangeably, but like with nun, a monk lives cloistered. A brother is a non-ordained man consecrated to religious life. While many brothers are monks, many monks are priests, and some brothers live non-cloistered lives, in the sciences, perhaps the best known would be Brother Guy Consolmagno who is a Jesuit brother and the Vatican astronomer.
As an aside, it always rubs me the wrong way when people insinuate the (Catholic) church is anti-science when the long list of contributions to science says otherwise.
Plus, I've met Brother Guy. He's really cool.
It is hard to overstate the social pressure women were under to discard any life goals besides "motherhood" for a long time. My MIL has a math degree but knew full well that she might as well put in in the shredder once she got married. It's still kind of a painful subject for her honestly.
Goodness, I can imagine. If I was not given the chance to apply anything that I learned over the last two decades and was only allowed to do household chores and look after kids - as much as I'm looking forward to raising children - I would be extremely sad
My mom got an engineering degree, '64-'68, and was also pretty much the only woman there. Women were going to college then, it's just that any woman (like my mom) showing engineering aptitude was encouraged to be a teacher since, as she was counseled, "women don't become engineers".
If you were really lucky you were born into a rich family that could exempt you from the role given to you. The church may had been a alternative escape route available for women, but I don't know if that was the case here.
aren’t allowed to marry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_Charity_of_the_Bles...
Just wow.
Woman did work as employees at the computer center, and bringing dates from nearby schools and colleges to the computing center was apparently a thing as students liked to show off their computer skills.
Also of note: unlike other colleges, students at Dartmouth didn't need to pay for computer time, creating both opportunity but potentially also the need to 'guard' against outsiders.
She’s a web and app developer and new media pioneer - and her monastery’s primary income comes through development and consulting services.
I went to a talk of hers on social media years ago and it was excellent.
“Being cloistered doesn't mean that you have to have an enclosed mind, or an enclosed approach to things.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11511596/Meet-...
Let's not forget that clergy was originally a ruling class, and as such, had access to higher education and enough time to think and do research. And even today, with a few exceptions, they are far from being brainwashed cultists.
Not only they have a better than average level of scientific education, they also have a surprisingly open mind. Fitting for people who spend a good part of their life studying, even if most of it is about the Bible.
He was quite invasive with his faith though.
Nice achievement but keep it DRY