SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 24) The SWE Web site offers a collection of oral history interviews that document the lives and achievements of pioneering women engineers. The histories include video clips and written transcripts. To view Dr. Baum’s interview and those of others, visit http://archives.swe. org/swewomen/ profiles/baum.aspx. the aerospace industry before attending graduate school. While in graduate school, she discovered her love of teaching. Since receiving her Ph.D. from Polytechnic University in New York in 1964, Dr. Baum has spent her career in academia. Dr. Baum’s passion for serving as a role model and mentor, and actively recruiting women into the engineering profession, stems from what she categorizes as her “great sorrow” — having no female role models or mentors as she was making her career choice. She believes it is important for women to have role models and mentors and that women already in the profession have the responsibility to serve in these capacities. During her time as dean of The Cooper Union, female enrollment has increased from 5 percent of the student body to 40 percent. She is a frequent writer and speaker on the topic and has often been a guest on radio and TV programs, as well as a quoted authority by the press. She undertook groundbreaking and widely disseminated surveys of women engineers and women engineering undergraduates. Those surveys dealt with demographics, attitudes, and personality traits, and helped define and direct national efforts to recruit more women into the engineering profession. A trailblazer in engineering curriculum development, Dr. Baum has written numerous professional articles. She serves on the board of directors of several corporations and on professional and university boards. Dr. Baum has been recognized with more than 20 awards and citations and has five honorary doctorates from major colleges and universities, including the University of Notre Dame and Union College. The National Women’s Hall of Fame is located in Seneca Falls. This small town in upstate New York is the birthplace of women’s rights and location of the first women’s rights convention, held in 1848. The National Women’s Hall of Fame’s mission is “To honor in perpetuity those women, citizens of the United States of America, whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science, have been the greatest value for the development of their country.” Other 2007 inductees were Julia Child, Swanee Hunt, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Winona LaDuke, Judith L. Pipher, Catherine Filene Shouse, Henrietta Szold, and Martha Coffin Wright. I Jill S. Tietjen, P.E., is a Fellow and life member of SWE. She is the president and CEO of Technically Speaking, Inc. and served as the 1991-1992 president of SWE. continued from page 23 nology to nonscientific and business applications was the complex, nonuser-friendly language of computers. She believed that the development of programming language that could be used by “nontechnical” people was crucial in proliferating this new technology among a wider group of users. Dr. Hopper became a major voice in the efforts to devise specifications for a common computer language. She and her staff developed the first programming language to use English words. The innovative language later defined the basic COBOL language design, giving computer access to the business world. Another of Dr. Hopper’s significant accomplishments was the standardization of compilers, software that translates text written in a source computer language into another computer language. She also was instrumental in the development of the UNIVAC I, the first American computer designed for business and administrative use. Dr. Hopper was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994. Sheila Widnall, Ph.D., is an Institute Professor and professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she began her career in 1964. From 1993 to 1997 Dr. Widnall served as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force , the first woman to head a branch of the U.S. military. In this historic appointment, she was responsible for all aspects of the Department of the Air Force, including recruiting, training, and equipping members of the Air Force, Air National Guard, Air Reserve, and civilians. She led research and development and other activities assigned by the president or the secretary of defense. She also co-chaired the Department of Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Discrimination. Dr. Widnall left her position as Secretary of the Air Force in1997 to resume her career with MIT. Prior to her appointment as secretary, Dr. Widnall was the first MIT alumna appointed to the faculty of the School of Engineering, and she was the first woman chair of the faculty. She also served as the associate provost for the school from 1992 to 1993. In 1956, Dr. Widnall was one of only 23 women in the MIT freshman class of 936 students. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT. Known internationally for her research in fluid dynamics, most notably in the areas of aircraft turbulence and spiraling air flows, she has acquired three patents in airflow technology. She was a member of the space shuttle Columbia accident investigation board. Dr. Widnall was inducted into the Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame in 1996 and is a recipient of SWE’s Achievement Award. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2003. — Carol Polakowski, SWE Magazine Associate Editor 24 SWE SPRING 2008 http://archives.swe.org/swewomen/profiles/baum.aspx
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