Sallie P. Mead was an American mathematician and engineer. Mead earned her master’s degree in mathematics from Columbia University in 1914. She was hired by AT&T as a “computer,” or a human calculator, and then transitioned to the engineering team in 1919. Mead was the first woman at AT&T to hold a patent, ultimately earning six patents throughout her career. She was also the first woman to publish a technical report in the Bell System Technical Journal. Mead was instrumental to a breakthrough discovery in waveguide technology that is still used in radar systems today. She was elected to the American Mathematical Society in 1923.
