Margaret Hamilton and Grace Hopper receive Medals of Freedom

Margaret Hamilton, lead software designer for the Apollo space mission flight software (the code for which can be seen in the picture on the right) was recently awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hamilton was the first person to coin the term “software engineer,” and was a luminary in the field.

During the same ceremony, President Obama also awarded a medal to the late Grace Hopper, Navy software genius who invented the compiler. Hopper died in 1992.