Happy birthday to trailblazing programmer & computer scientist, Beatrice “Trixie” Worsley (1921-1972). My #linocut shows Worsley seated at the first computer in Canada, the FERUT (which she named) & a flow diagram of one of her programs.
Trixie Worsley earned one of the first doctorates in computer science anywhere, & was supervised by Douglas Hartree and Alan Turing at Cambridge. Amongst the first computer scientists in 🧵
Canada, she was certainly the first woman in the field here. She focused on writing software, development of computer libraries, scientific computation and was co-author of the first compiler Transcode (vital to physicists) as well as teaching in the new field of computer science. Her work provides insight into the history of the nascent field of computer science. She published her computational insights and solutions for problems in physics, biology and computer science.
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As soon as she completed her bachelor’s in mathematics at the University of Toronto in 1944, she enlisted in the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, known as the Wrens. As a researcher at the Naval Research Establishment at Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Establishment Stradacona, in Halifax, NS, she focused on harbour defence. Worsley was one of 6 Wrens amongst 50 scientists, officers and support staff, who were responsible for things like degaussing ships to limit their magnetic signature and 🧵3
vulnerability to German magnetic mines, torpedo guidance and researching different techniques for harbour defence. Most of this group left the service within a year of the end of the war to pursue further education, with the special opportunities offered to veterans. A small number including Worsley, the only remaining Wren, stayed on. The newly promoted Lieutenant Worsley began researching the badly understood electrochemistry of hull corrosion in 1945, performing experiments at sea. 🧵4/5
She set the Wrens’ record for time at sea, at 150 days, including during the rough mid-winter months. Her endurance and knowledge earned her the respect of the crews, even doing what she called a man’s job. 🧵5/5
@minouette Thanks for this thread, I discovered someone !
(PS: You are a worthy and awesome person, reported the harasser).
@Sobex thanks!
(I actually didn’t see a harasser. Don’t know if that means a comment was removed but thanks for that too.)
@minouette @Sobex I reported as well.
@minouette You’re a pathetic piece of shit.
@minouette Great thread! TIL!
@annehargreaves thanks!