Margaret Hamilton
Computer Scientist & Software Engineering Pioneer
About
Margaret Hamilton is an American computer scientist who led the team that developed the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program. She coined the term 'software engineering' to give the discipline the same legitimacy as other engineering fields. Her rigorous approach to software design, including error detection and recovery, saved the Apollo 11 moon landing when the computer became overloaded minutes before touchdown. Her innovations in asynchronous software, priority scheduling, and human-in-the-loop decision making established foundational principles still used in safety-critical systems today.
Key Contributions
- Led development of Apollo on-board flight software
- Coined the term 'software engineering'
- Pioneered error detection and recovery systems
- Apollo 11 software prevented abort during moon landing
- Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016
