Beatrice Worsley

By admin , 16 March 2026
Beatrice
Worsley
Female
Description

The first woman in Canada to work as a computer scientist, Beatrice "Trixie" Worsley earned one of the earliest Ph.D.s granted in what would today be recognized as computer science, receiving her degree from the University of Cambridge under adviser Douglas Hartree and with guidance from Alan Turing.

Her technical contributions were foundational. She wrote the first program to run on EDSAC and co-wrote the first compiler for Toronto's Ferranti Mark 1. She also produced numerous papers in computer science throughout her career.

Worsley taught computers and engineering at Queen's University and the University of Toronto for over 20 years, shaping the field's development in Canada before her death at the age of 50.

First Canadian Computer Scientist
Date of Birth
1921-10-18
Date of Death
1972-05-08
she/her

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