KELLER, Mary Kenneth

Being researched

KELLER, Mary Kenneth (Sister) (Cleveland, OH, Dec. 17, 1913--Dubuque, IA, Jan. 10, 1985).

Keller entered the SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARYIn 1932 and her vows in 1940. She completed both her B.S. (Bachelor of Science) in Mathematics in 1943 and her M.S. (Master of Science) in Mathematics and Physics in 1953 from DePaul University in Chicago. Keller earned her Ph.D, the first for a woman in the United States in the subject of computers, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965. Her dissertation, "Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns", focused on "constructing algorithms that performed analytic differentiation on algebraic expression, written in CDC FORTRAN 63." (1)

During Keller's graduate studies, she was affiliated with the University of Michigan, Purdue, and Dartmouth. Dartmouth relaxed the rule barring women from its computer center, which allowed Keller to help develop the computer language BASIC. Before BASIC, only mathematicians and scientists could write custom software; BASIC allowed anyone who could learn the language to do so, making computer use accessible to a much larger portion of the population. (2) She became a proficient teacher of BASIC and co-wrote a prominent textbook on the subject in 1973.

After finishing her doctorate in 1965, Keller founded the computer science department atCLARKE COLLEGE (now Clarke University), a Catholic women's college founded by Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque. That same year, that National Science Foundation awarded her a grant of $25,000 payable over two years for "instructional equipment for undergraduate education." One of the first computer science departments at a small college, Keller directed this department for twenty years. Clarke University now has the Keller Computer Center and Information Services, which was named after her and which provides computing and telecommunication support to Clarke College students, faculty members, and staff. The college also established the Mary Kenneth Keller Computer Science Scholarship in her honor.

Keller was an advocate for the involvement of women in computing and the use of computers for education. She helped to establish the Association of Small Computer Users in Education (ASCUE). She went on to write four books in the field.

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Source:

1. Mary Kenneth Keller, Wikipedia

2. Crezo, Adrienne, "The First Woman Ph.D Was a Nun," Mental Floss, October 14, 2013, Online: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53178/first-woman-earn-phd-computer-science-was-nun