Kathleen Hylda Valerie Booth was a mathematician and computer scientist who is credited with creating the first computer assembly language. The creation of the assembly language led to the ability to program computers. She worked on programming computers such as ARC, SEC, and APE(X)C, along with a team. She then worked with John von Neumann to create a new computer called ARC2 and co-authored a paper, about the changes to the ARC computer based on using von Neumann architecture, titled “General Considerations in the Design of an All-Purpose Electronic Digital Computer.” She later co-founded the School of Computer Science and Information Systems, then called the Department of Numerical Automation, at Birkbeck College in London, taught a programming course while there, and wrote a book describing how to program the APE(X)C. She later conducted research at the British Rubber Producer’s Research Association for 16 years. Afterward, she went back to Birkbeck College as a research fellow and lecturer for 10 years until she left for Canada due to the college not properly rewarding her husband. At the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada, she continued to be a research fellow and lecturer until 1972, and then became a Professor of Mathematics at Lakehead University in Canada. She also researched neural networks that led to being able to see that animals can recognize patterns. She then retired in 1978 and published her last paper in 1993, titled “Using Neural Nets to Identify Marine Mammals.” She died at the age of 100 on September 29, 2022.
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