Helen Ling was a software engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Born in China in 1928, she emigrated to the United States and studied mathematics at the University of Notre Dame—the only woman to do so at the time. After graduation, Ling was hired at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). During her career there, she developed software for the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, Magellan, TOPEX/Poseidon, and Mars Observer missions. As supervisor of the computing group in the 1960s, Ling was a pioneer for women’s rights in the workplace. She employed women computer programmers and encouraged them to attend night school to earn degrees that would allow them more opportunities within JPL. At that time women at JPL were forced to quit if they became pregnant. Ling would rehire these women after maternity leave. Thanks to her mentorship and guidence, many of those women became computer scientists and engineers at JPL.
