Thelma Estrin was an early pioneer in the application of
computer technology to healthcare and medical research. She later became a professor at a number of
colleges including the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Estrin was president of the IEEE Engineering
in Medicine and Biology Society and vice president of the IEEE.
Education and Early
Career
Estrin, pictured at the center of the top of the photo, was born in New York City. She originally studied accounting and history
in college; her mother thought she would wind up a lawyer. That changed when her husband entered the
U.S. Army during World War II. Estrin
took a three-month engineering course and began working at Radio Receptor
Company. She built electronic devices,
working first as a machinist and then as an electronic technician.
After the war, she obtained her BSc, MSc, and Ph.D in
electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her husband attended the same college at the
same time. His education was financed by
the GI Bill; Estrin sold her deceased mother's engagement ring to help pay her
bills.
Computers and
Biomedical Engineering
In 1951, Estrin's husband obtained a job back on the east
coast. Estrin found her own job in the
electroencephalography department at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
Neurological Institute. At the hospital
she developed an interested in biomedical engineering when her colleagues were
interested in measuring the action potentials along the nerve fiber. She redesigned a frequency analyzer to examine
EEGs quickly and accurately.
A physicist visited the institute where Estrin was
working. He was interested in learning
about computers so he could build one for Israel. Estrin's husband received a fellowship to go
to Israel to build a computer and they both--with
their young daughter--sailed there in 1953.
Estrin helped redesign the computer's adder and multiplier, improving
reliability by using newer vacuum tubes.
When Estrin's husband got a job on the faculty of UCLA she
was unable to find work there because it was considered nepotism. She joined the faculty of a junior college in
San Fernando Valley, CA teaching drafting.
Through a colleague Estrin joined the Brain Research Institute (BRI) in
1960 and became director of its Data Processing Laboratory. She published 50 technical papers on the use
of computing technology in healthcare.
She also provided support for research projects by promoting the use of
computers and helping scientists use computers to solve problems.
Estrin received an appointment to the anatomy department and
eventually to the computer science department at UCLA. She also served as president of the IEEE
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.
She was the first woman elected to national office as vice president of
the IEEE.
Editor's Note - If
you're interested in reading more about Thelma Estrin, I highly recommend you
check out the first resource link, below.
It's a transcript of an interview where you can read about her
background in her own words.
Resources:
Women
in the History of Computing Technology - Thelma Estrin
IEEE
Global History Network - Oral-History: Thelma Estrin
Wikipedia
- Thelma Estrin
Women
in Computer Science - Thelma Estrin
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/still-image/WEIZAC/102707324.03.01.lg.jpg [image]
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