June 7, 1965 – Madison, Wisconsin
In a twist that stitched together faith, technology, and trailblazing intellect, the first American woman to earn a PhD in computer science did so in a nun’s habit. Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, a member of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, entered the record books at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, when she defended her dissertation on “Inductive Inference on Computer Generated Patterns.” With that, the world’s most cutting-edge computers suddenly had a little more “sisterly” guidance.
Born Evelyn Marie Keller, Sister Mary Kenneth’s journey was equal parts prayer and programming. She joined her religious order in the 1930s, earned her degrees in mathematics and physics from DePaul University, and then cracked open the door to the all-male labs at Dartmouth—helping expand access to the famous BASIC language. After earning her doctorate, Keller founded and ran the computer science department at Clarke College in Iowa—a pioneering feat for any professor, let alone an orderly nun.
Keller’s legacy is as wide as the digital divide she worked to close. She promoted access, fought for women in tech, and even allowed students to bring their babies to class. “We have not fully used a computer as the greatest interdisciplinary tool that has been invented to date,” she once declared—a prophecy echoed in today’s AI age.
In a final twist, on the very same day Keller was hooded for her PhD, another student across the country was being granted the nation’s first computer science doctorate—just hours earlier. Keller missed being first by the slimmest of margins. Still, history will remember her as the first woman—and the first nun—to rewrite the code of computing history.
Sources: Wikipedia • On Wisconsin • arXiv • IEEE Computer Society • Omnes Mag • Reddit /r/HistoryPorn • CS @ UW–Madison • Izertis • Pathology Innovation CC (PDF)