Surprising Women Scientists

As a computer scientist, the list of historical women I admire is fairly short and predictable: pioneer Grace Hopper is at the top, followed by Turing-award winner Frances Allen and “enchantress of numbers” Ada Lovelace. Inspiration sometimes comes from unusual places, however, and I would never have guessed that a female scientist and inventor was also a 1940s Hollywood glamour girl. Really.

Hedy Lamarr, known primarily for being beautiful and seductive, was also a co-inventor of spread-spectrum broadcasting, a technology that laid the groundwork for secure broadcast communications and even modern-day Wi-Fi. Spread-spectrum techniques use wide-band signals that are hard to detect, jam, or intercept, making them useful in military and secure applications. It’s pretty amazing Lamarr patented the underlying concept for it way back in 1942.

I’ve never believed that any of us must fit a particular mold, and I love that this scientist comes in a unique package. Lamarr starred in over 35 films in an acting career that spanned 60 years, and she also had a sort-of “Hollywood” personal life that included 6 marriages and 3 children. She also holds a patent and was awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award in 1997.

Hedy Lamarr is an unusual source of inspiration but newly and firmly on my list of women scientists I admire. What historical and scientific figures have you been surprised by?

Related posts:

1. Celebrating Young Women in Computing
2. Tech Republic’s Women in IT series: Esther Dyson
3. Inspiring Women of the Web & Technology
4. O’Reilly’s Women in Technology series
5. Where the Women Are in Tech