She Invented That A digital museum of women in science

Scientist Exhibit

Jean E. Sammet

Computer Science

1928 – 2017 United States

Developed FORMAC and contributed to the development and standardization of COBOL

Overview Institutions
Jean E. Sammet

Overview

About Jean E. Sammet

Jean E. Sammet was a computer scientist who helped shape the development of programming languages. She participated in the work that produced COBOL and later led the development of FORMAC, an early programming language for symbolic mathematical manipulation. Sammet also documented the rapidly expanding landscape of programming languages and became an influential leader in the computing profession. Her work connected practical language design with the emerging academic study of programming languages.

Scientific Contribution

Key Discovery

COBOL development and standardization

Foundational contributions to the development, adoption and standardization of the COBOL programming language.

FORMAC

Development of FORMAC, an early programming language and system for symbolic mathematical manipulation.

Life Timeline

Important Moments

1959

career

Helps develop the COBOL programming language

Sammet served on the CODASYL committee that designed COBOL, contributing to one of the most influential business programming languages.

1961

career

Joins IBM

Sammet joined IBM and became a leading specialist in programming languages.

1962

discovery

Leads development of the FORMAC language

At IBM, Sammet led the development of FORMAC, an early widely used programming language for symbolic mathematical manipulation.

1969

publication

Publishes Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals

Sammet published a major reference work documenting the history, design and characteristics of programming languages.

1974

career

Becomes the first woman president of ACM

Sammet became the first woman to serve as president of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Places & Networks

Institutions