Mary Kenneth Keller

Mary Kenneth Keller was an American computer scientist who was also a Catholic nun belonging to the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She successfully balanced her deep religious vows with her pioneering academic career. She proved that women of faith could be at the forefront of modern technological advancement.

In 1965, she earned one of the first doctorates in computer science ever awarded in the United States. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation focused on generating computer algorithms for logical inference.

Yes, she was actively involved in the early development of the BASIC programming language while working at Dartmouth College. She collaborated with John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz to make computing more accessible to non-scientists. Her work helped democratize computer usage for everyday students.

She went on to found the computer science department at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa. She served as the chair of that department for nearly two decades. Under her leadership, Clarke became one of the first small colleges in the US to offer an undergraduate degree in computer science.