Margaret H. Hamilton has been awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Hamilton was a pioneering computer scientist and was former head of the
Software Engineering Division of MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory.
The first Apollo contract NASA awarded was to the MIT Charles Stark
Draper Laboratory for the development of the Command and Lunar
Module guidance systems.
Hamilton played an instrumental role in developing the software for those
systems.
The incredibly sophisticated Apollo guidance systems and computers were
a triumph of engineering and human endeavour.
Story at MIT here -
http://news.mit.edu/2016/apollo-code...f-freedom-1117
Wikipedia article on Margaret Hamilton here -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margar...ton_(scientist)
Picture captures -
1) Hamilton standing next to the navigation software that she and her MIT team produced for the Apollo project.
2) Hamilton during her time as lead Apollo flight software designer.