Helene E. () Kulsrud is a computer scientist known for her work developing graphical languages and compilers for the

Cray-1 The Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured and marketed by Cray Research. Announced in 1975, the first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. Eventually, eighty Cray-1s were sold, making it one of the ...

and other Cray super computers and debugging programs that allowed a user to interactively troubleshoot computer issues.

Education and career

Kulsrud earned a B.A. in mathematics from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

in 1953 and has an M.A. in astrophysics from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

(1955). She was a member of the honor society

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and member of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

. Kulsrud worked at the

Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, but has a P ...

from 1956 until 1957, serving as the head programmer. She then joined

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

in 1957 where she remained until 1965. From 1965 until 1966 she was a research associate at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. In 1968 when she joined the Communications Research Division (CRD) of the

Institute for Defense Analyses The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an American non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) – the Systems and Analyses Center (SAC), Science and Technology Policy Institute, t ...

in Princeton, New Jersey, and as of 1984 she was the deputy head of the institute. Kulsrud was a member of the Cray User Group, which shared software, developments, improvements, and suggestions for future hardware for Cray supercomputers; she served as president from 1985 at least to 1986. Kulsrud also worked on the U.S Department of Energy's Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee from 2000 to 2004.

Work

Kulsrud is known for her work in establishing the groundwork for graphical computer languages. While working at the Educational Testing Service she developed the use of computers to present SAT scores and statistically analyzed the results of the tests. During her time at Yale, she developed a general-purpose graphics language that could be used on multiple graphics devices. While at RCA Laboratories she combined her interest in mathematics and astronomy, writing programs designed to find solutions of differential equations. She also developed compilers, a debugging system for RCA computers that allowed the user to interactively debug code, and new computer language, IDAL and the compiler needed to run the language on the

super computer. She also contributed to research on sonic booms.

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

Her work earned her and her team awards including a 1961 RCA Laboratories achievement award for her work on

electron gun file:Egun.jpg, Electron gun from a cathode-ray tube file:Vidicon Electron Gun.jpg, The electron gun from an RCA Vidicon video camera tube An electron gun (also called electron emitter) is an electrical component in some vacuum tubes that produc ...

s and a 1966 RCA team achievement for her work on Spectra computers. In 1984 Kulsrud received a YWCA Tribute to Women Award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulsrud, Helene 1933 births Smith College alumni University of Chicago alumni American women computer scientists American computer scientists Living people