Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)

Margaret Elaine Hamilton (<a href="/facts/Birth_name/FctFJcbg">née</a> Heafield; born August 17, 1936) is an American <a href="/facts/Computer_scientist/DavggjGL">computer scientist</a>. She directed the Software Engineering Division at the <a href="/facts/Draper_Laboratory/prxprY9L">MIT Instrumentation Laboratory</a>, where she led the development of the on-board flight software for <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a>'s <a href="/facts/Apollo_Guidance_Computer/xGxHlrXY">Apollo Guidance Computer</a> for the <a href="/facts/Apollo_program/IC1Ek1Ao">Apollo program</a>. She later founded two software companies, Higher Order Software in 1976 and Hamilton Technologies in 1986, both in <a href="/facts/Cambridge,_Massachusetts/k9UMIJ7U">Cambridge, Massachusetts</a>.
Hamilton has published more than 130 papers, proceedings, and reports, about sixty projects, and six major programs. She coined the term "<a href="/facts/Software_engineering/KX6cE9kz">software engineering</a>", stating "I began to use the term 'software engineering' to distinguish it from hardware and other kinds of engineering, yet treat each type of engineering as part of the overall <a href="/facts/Systems_engineering/gFwRmkDp">systems engineering</a> process."
On November 22, 2016, Hamilton received the <a href="/facts/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom/wNtowHA6">Presidential Medal of Freedom</a> from president <a href="/facts/Barack_Obama/76wUMgL1">Barack Obama</a> for her work leading to the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Moon missions.

Margaret Hamilton (software engineer) open-in-new

Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)