She Invented That A digital museum of women in science

Scientist Exhibit

Lois Haibt

Computer Science

1934 – Present United States

Helped develop the first FORTRAN compiler at IBM

Overview Institutions
Lois Haibt

Overview

About Lois Haibt

Lois Haibt is a computer scientist who was part of the IBM team that developed the first FORTRAN compiler in the 1950s. She worked on methods for translating arithmetic expressions and other high-level program structures into efficient machine instructions. FORTRAN made scientific and engineering programming far more accessible and became one of the most influential programming languages in computing history. Haibt’s compiler work contributed directly to that transition from machine-oriented coding to high-level programming.

Scientific Contribution

Key Discovery

First FORTRAN compiler

Contributions to the team that developed the first FORTRAN compiler at IBM.

Life Timeline

Important Moments

1955

career

Joins IBM

Haibt joined IBM after graduating from Vassar College and became part of the team developing the FORTRAN programming language.

1957

discovery

Contributes to the first FORTRAN compiler

As a member of John Backus's team, Haibt developed methods for analysing arithmetic expressions and generating efficient machine instructions for the first FORTRAN compiler.

1957

publication

FORTRAN is released for the IBM 704

The first FORTRAN system was delivered for the IBM 704, helping make high-level programming practical for scientific and engineering computing.

Places & Networks

Institutions