Mary Wilkes was born in 1937 in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Wellesley College, class of 1959. She got her undergraduate degree in philosophy and then supposedly on a dare from her eighth grade geography teacher, she took up computer programming.
- She was the first person to design and work on a computer privately at home in 1965 and is regarded as the first home computer user.
- Conceptualized and implemented the first operating system
- Developed the assembler-linker model used in modern program compilers.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Wilkes worked in the MIT Lincoln Laboratory from 1959 to 1963, where she worked with some early computers, like the IBM 709 and the TX2. While there, she simulated the LINC, what would become the first minicomputer, on the
TX2. She designed the console and the first operating system for LINC and continued to design many operating systems for LINC, all named beginning with "LAP" up to the LAP6. She then authored the LAP6 Handbook and co-authored Programming with LINC with Wesley A. Clark.
In 1965, she designed and used a computer in her home, and is usually considered to be the first home computer user.
Washington University
In 1965, Wilkes left MIT and began working at the Computer Systems Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. In St. Louis, she designed the multiply macromodule.
Mary Allen Wilkes was a woman computer engineer who made her mark in what was a very male dominated
field in the 1950s and 60s. Even though Mary Wiles had since retired from the computer science field and pursed a career in law, she is one of many women that have made major contributions to a fast growing technological existence, which continues to open doors for the women after her.
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