Mathematician and Computer Scientist Grace Hopper

Have you ever taken something apart to see how it works? As a child, Grace Hopper took apart five alarm clocks in a row, trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together. As an adult, she joined the Naval Reserve during World War II and worked on the world’s first large-scale computer.

After the war, Hopper served on a committee organized by the Department of Defense to create a standard computer language. That language, Common Business-Oriented Language, or COBOL, quickly became popular. How did a curious little girl grow up to become the Grandmother of COBOL? Learn how her outstanding innovations changed the field of computer programming.