Bobby Hersom (born 1929 in

Cheshire, England Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county town ...

) is a British mathematician and computer scientist known for her early work on computers at Elliott Brothers,

Hatfield Polytechnic The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was iden ...

, and the Rothamstead Agricultural Research Station.

Life

Hersom was born Roberta Lewis in Cheshire, England, the oldest of three children. She earned a maths degree from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

in 1950. She then earned a teaching degree in 1951. She was a member of The Round, an English Country Dance Club while at Cambridge. She married Ed Hersom, who she met through work, in 1954. Her son Colin also attended Cambridge and was a mathematician and her daughter was a farmer. She regretted having to quit her work as a computer scientist after her first child was born, which meant she could only work freelance. Her husband died in 2002.

Career

After earning her teaching degree, Hersom worked as a teacher, but realized she didn't enjoy that work. She started working in the Theory Division at Elliott Brothers in Borehamwood, UK, in 1953. There she wrote software programs for Nicholas, a research computer. Some of the software she developed processed

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

data. In 1954, she left that job to start her family. Hersom then worked for Rothamstead for 11 years. She later worked as a consultant for

, along with her husband. She worked there until retirement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hersom, Bobby 1929 births 20th-century British mathematicians Alumni of the University of Cambridge British computer scientists British women computer scientists British women mathematicians Living people