Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped land Apollo astronauts on the moon, has died

Margaret Hamilton, the groundbreaking researcher who helped create the field of software engineering and whose code helped land NASA’s Apollo astronauts on the moon to win the 20th century space race, has died. She was 90.

Hamilton’s former employer, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, confirmed her death in a post from the department of aeronautics and astronautics. The cause of her death was not disclosed.

It was during her time working at MIT, where she took a job in 1959 and remained until the mid-1970s, that Hamilton managed the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. The division landed a contract with NASA in 1961. She ultimately led a team of 100 engineers that designed the software to guide NASA’s Apollo missions.

Through her work, Hamilton is also credited as one of the founders of the field of software engineering — a term she coined — by helping to establish it as a professional practice.

“To say Margaret Hamilton was a pioneer — to say she was ahead of her time — would be a dramatic understatement,” said Olivier de Weck, the Apollo Program Professor and interim head of the MIT Department Aeronautics and Astronautics, in a statement. “She was a software engineer at a time when that field was in its infancy, and she not only developed advanced code herself but also led a team in using that nascent technology to develop one of the most complex systems humanity had ever achieved.”

Hamilton was honored in 2016 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama for her contribution to science and space travel.

开创性的研究员玛格丽特·汉密尔顿去世，享年90岁。她帮助创建了软件工程领域，她的代码帮助NASA的阿波罗宇航员成功登月，赢得了20世纪的太空竞赛。

汉密尔顿的前雇主麻省理工学院在其航空航天系发布的一则声明中证实了她的死讯。声明中并未透露她的死因。

在麻省理工学院工作期间（她于1959年入职，一直工作到20世纪70年代中期），汉密尔顿负责管理麻省理工学院仪器实验室的软件工程部门。该部门于1961年与美国国家航空航天局（NASA）签订了合同。她最终领导了一支由100名工程师组成的团队，设计了用于指导NASA阿波罗计划的软件。

汉密尔顿通过她的工作，也被认为是软件工程领域的创始人之一——软件工程这个术语是她创造的——因为她帮助将其确立为一种专业实践。

“说玛格丽特·汉密尔顿是先驱——说她超越了时代——都远远低估了她的成就，”阿波罗计划教授、麻省理工学院航空航天系临时主任奥利维尔·德·韦克在一份声明中表示。“在她担任软件工程师的那个年代，软件领域还处于萌芽阶段，她不仅自己编写了先进的代码，还领导团队利用这项新兴技术开发出了人类有史以来最复杂的系统之一。”

2016年，汉密尔顿因其对科学和太空旅行的贡献，被巴拉克·奥巴马总统授予总统自由勋章。