Edith Clarke

Born on 10 February 1883 in Howard County, Maryland, Edith Clarke was the first female electrical engineer and the first female professor of electrical engineering in the US. After graduating in 1908 from Vassar College with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and astronomy, Clarke spent the next several years teaching. In 1911 she went back to school to study engineering and, after attending programs at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University, earned her master’s in electrical engineering from MIT in 1919. She was the first woman to earn that degree at MIT. Upon graduation, Clarke went to work at General Electric, where she remained until she retired in 1945, except for a two-year leave of absence to teach physics at a women’s college in Turkey. In 1926 Clarke became the first woman to present a paper before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE, which later became IEEE); it focused on mathematical models for electric power transmission systems. In 1947 she accepted a professorship at the University of Texas at Austin, where she taught electrical engineering until she retired a second time, in 1956. During her career, Clarke published 18 technical papers, received a patent for a graphical calculator, became the first female Fellow of the AIEE, and received the Society of Women Engineers’ achievement award. After her death on 29 October 1959, Clarke was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. (Photo credit: Museum of Innovation and Science)

Date in History: 10 February 1883