Google Doodle Celebrates Mary G. Ross, First Native American Female Engineer
August 09, 2018 12:00(Image source from: SWE 'All Together' - Society of Women Engineers)
Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 110th birthday of Mary G. Ross, who was the first Native American female engineer.
She was most well known for her work on interplanetary space travel, manned and unmanned earth-orbiting flights, and orbiting satellites.
The Google Doodle showcases her designs that helped lead to interplanetary space travel. She has an immense set of awards including Silicon Valley Engineering Council's Hall of Fame, 1992, Fellow and life member of the Society of Women Engineers, and others. She worked for Lockheed Corporation, in 1942 and joined their Advanced Development Program named Skunk Works in 1952. She was born on August 9, 1908, in Park Hill, Oklahoma and passed at the age of 99 on April 29, 2008, in Los Altos, California.
Ross as well devoted herself to encouraging women and Native Americans into careers in the field of the STEM. In order to assist future female engineers and technologists, she set up a scholarship in her name.
In order to aid fellow Native Americans and develop their educational program, Ross likewise worked closely with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the Council of Energy Resource Tribes.
According to the National Science Foundation, only 0.1 percent of those working in science and engineering are female American Indians. And according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 8.1 percent of employed aerospace engineers are women.
Mary G. Ross died at the age of 99 on April 29, 2008.
Ross's Google Doodle on Thursday depicts her portrait over a blueprint of the Agena rocket with the Earth and stars in the background.
By Sowmya Sangam