Erna Schneider Hoover

Erna Schneider Hoover was born on June 19, 1926, in Irvington, New Jersey. Her dad was a dentist. Her mom used to be a teacher. Both parents helped her love learning.

When Erna was young, she read a book about Marie Curie, a famous woman scientist. This book showed her that girls could be great at science too. She decided to study hard and follow her own dreams.

Erna went to Columbia High School and did very well. Then she went to Wellesley College, a school just for women. She studied history and philosophy, which means she loved thinking about big ideas and old times. She graduated in 1948 with top honors.

After college, Erna went to Yale University. She studied logic, which is the science of clear thinking and solving problems step by step. In 1951, she earned her Ph.D., a very high degree. Very few women had this kind of degree back then.

Erna started teaching philosophy at Swarthmore College. There, she met her husband, Charles Hoover Jr., a physicist. When Charles got a job at Bell Labs in New Jersey, they moved. It was hard for married women to get good jobs teaching then, so Erna decided to work at Bell Labs too.

Bell Labs was a famous science lab. Erna joined in 1954. At first, she worked on radar systems used to track missiles. This was important, serious work.

Later, Erna worked on a big problem: too many phone calls were jamming the telephone system. She used her math and logic skills to invent a smart computer program. Her program watched the phone system and decided which jobs were most important. This stopped the system from getting overloaded, even when lots of people were calling at once.

In 1971, Erna received a patent for her invention. A patent means the government says an idea is yours and no one else can copy it without permission. Her patent was one of the very first patents ever given for a computer program. Some say she may have been the first woman to get a software patent ever!

Erna kept doing great work at Bell Labs. In 1978, she became the head of a whole technical department. She was the first woman to have this kind of job at Bell Labs. She helped guide teams working on computers and smart machines.

Erna worked at Bell Labs for 32 years. She retired in 1987.

Erna also cared about schools. She joined groups that helped run colleges in New Jersey. She wanted all students to get a good education.

Because of her hard work, Erna won many awards. In 2008, she was added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. This is a special honor for people who invent important things.

Erna Schneider Hoover's ideas are still used today. Computers everywhere use her idea of deciding which jobs to do first when things get busy. She proved that women could be amazing scientists and leaders, just like Marie Curie showed her long ago.