Helen Ling

Helen Ling
Alma mater University of Notre Dame
Employer Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Helen Ling (née Yee Chow) is a former software engineer who worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She made considerable efforts to make the Jet Propulsion Laboratory more diverse.

Early life

Ling was born in China and survived the Japanese bombing of Hong Kong.[1] She studied at Canton College.[2] She emigrated to the United States to attend college, and ended up studying at University of Notre Dame.[3] She was the only woman to major in mathematics.[4]

Career

Ling's brother worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and she thought the job would be perfect for her. was a supervisor for the computing group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[5] She made efforts to only employ women computers during the late 1950s and early 1960s - the programming group used to call themselves "Helen's Girls".[5] Ling's group were responsible for performing trajectory calculations.[5] Ling encouraged women to attend night school and obtain the correct qualifications to work alongside her at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[6] At the time, women at Jet Propulsion Laboratory were forced to quit if they became pregnant.[5] Instead of losing her talented team, Ling rehired women returning from maternity leave.[5] The author Nathalia Holt believes that "a lot of women ended up becoming computer scientists and engineers at JPL thanks to Helen’s guidance".[3] Her high school crush, Canton College's student body president Arthur Ling, emigrated to America and married Ling.[2] Ling developed software for the IRAS, Magellan, the TOPEX/Poseidon spacecraft and Mars Observer.[5] She retired from JPL in 1994.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Wolly, Brian. "Which Great American Should Be Immortalized With the Next Big Broadway Musical?". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  2. 1 2 results, search (2017-01-17). Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars (Reprint ed.). Back Bay Books. ISBN 9780316338905.
  3. 1 2 "Mothers of Discovery - Pasadena Weekly". Pasadena Weekly. 2017-02-16. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  4. ↑ Oksol, Bruce (2016-11-01). "Million Dollar Literature: Rise Of The Rocket Girls, Nathalia Holt, c. 2016". Million Dollar Literature. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Women Made Early Inroads at JPL". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  6. ↑ "The Secret History of the Women Who Got Us Beyond the Moon". 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
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