Jean E. Sammet

Jean E. Sammet
Born(1928-03-23)March 23, 1928[1]
New York City[1]
DiedMay 20, 2017(2017-05-20) (aged 89)[2]
Silver Spring, Maryland[3]
Alma materMount Holyoke College (B.A.)
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (M.A.)
Columbia University
AwardsAda Lovelace Award (1989)
Computer Pioneer Award(2009)
NCWIT Pioneer Award (2013)
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science

Jean E. Sammet (March 23, 1928 – May 20, 2017) was an American computer scientist who developed the FORMAC programming language in 1962. She was also one of the developers of the influential COBOL programming language.

She received her B.A. in Mathematics from Mount Holyoke College in 1948 and her M.A. in Mathematics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949. She received an honorary D.Sc. from Mount Holyoke College in 1978.[4]

Sammet was employed by Sperry Gyroscope from 1955 to 1958 where she supervised the first scientific programming group. From 1958 to 1961, she worked for Sylvania as a staff consultant for programming research and a member of the original COBOL group. She joined IBM in 1961 where she developed FORMAC, the first widely used computer language for symbolic manipulation of mathematical formulas. At IBM she researched the use of restricted English as a programming language and the use of natural language for mathematical programs. She was Programming Technology Planning Manager for the Federal Systems Division from 1968 to 1974, and was appointed Software Technology Manager in 1979.[5]

Sammet founded the ACM Special Interest Committee on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation (SICSAM) in 1965 and was chair of the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN). She was the first female president of the ACM, from 1974 to 1976.[6]

  1. ^ a b Bergin, Thomas J. (2009). "Jean Sammet: Programming Language Contributor and Historian, and ACM President". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 31 (1): 76–85. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2009.14. S2CID 42988189.
  2. ^ Hicks, Michael (May 24, 2017). "Jean Sammet, a Remembrance". The Programming Language Enthusiast.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference The New York Times 4 June 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Stanley, Autumn, Mothers and Daughters of Invention, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1993, p. 683
  5. ^ "Jean E. Sammet IEEE Computer Society" (PDF).
  6. ^ Stanley, Mothers and Daughters of Invention, p. 685