> In 1951, Mary Tsingou was an undergraduate studying mathematics and education at the University of Wisconsin when an instructor told her, “They’re looking for

> In 1951, Mary Tsingou was an undergraduate studying mathematics and education at the University of Wisconsin when an instructor told her, “They’re looking for women mathematicians at Los Alamos.” The Korean War was on, and the Lab had found that hiring and training men as mathematicians was mostly futile because they were so often drafted. Faced with a job market that was particularly tough for female math teachers, Tsingou decided to apply. She landed the job, and on January 7, 1952, she moved to Los Alamos. Imagine drafting mathematicians instead of sending them to the national security science laboratory at Los Almos! > Upon being hired, Tsingou was flatly informed that she and the other young women would be paid less than men with the same skills and qualifications because “men were breadwinners and women were just supplementary.” Imagine that being the standard. > By today’s standards in the scientific community, Mary Tsingou would have been an author on the paper— she might have even been the first author, the person who contributed the most to the project. Among those who agree with the renaming of the problem is David Campbell, Professor of Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University and former director of the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos. It's good to see programmers given this recognition. In my experience these days most programmers can expect an author credit on a paper they wrote software for. Not sure about being first author though!