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Cecilia Berdichevsky
Cecilia Berdichevsky or Berdichevski (née Tuwjasz; 30 March 1925 – 20 February 2010) was an Argentine computer scientist. She began her work in 1961 using the first Ferranti Mercury computer in that country.
She was born Mirjam Tuwjasz on 30 March 1925 to a Polish-Jewish family in Vidzy, at that time part of Poland, now Belarus.
Because of growing hostilities toward the Jewish community, first her father and then her mother Hoda and her emigrated to Argentina when she was four years old, where she adopted the name Cecilia, and she spent her childhood years in Avellaneda, south of the Buenos Aires suburbs. Her father died within a few years of arriving in their new home and her mother remarried a rich man.
Cecilia married Mario Berdichevsky, a physician from Avellaneda, in 1951.
Despite having a good job as a practicing accountant for ten years, she was not happy there having experienced many frustrations. A friend, computer scientist Rebeca Guber, advised her to study mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires, which changed her life.
At the age of 31, Berdichevsky began her studies of mathematics with Manuel Sadosky. There she had her first experience programming the new Ferranti Mercury computer, which became known by the nickname Clementina after someone programmed it to play the American song "Oh My Darling, Clementine". In 1961, when it arrived in Buenos Aires from England, Clementina, which cost US$300,000, was the most powerful computer in the country. It was 18 metres (59 ft) long, in narrow cabinets. It was the first large computer used for scientific purposes in the country; an IBM 1401 was installed in Buenos Aires for business use that year.
The newly graduated Berdichevsky studied computing with the visiting English software engineer Cicely Popplewell (who had worked with Alan Turing in Manchester) and with the Spanish mathematician Ernesto García Camarero. Popplewell motivated Berdichevsky to write and run the first program for the new computer, which required multiple arithmetic calculations. A photoelectric device read a punched paper ribbon that was used to submit the data, and Clementina produced the desired result in seconds.
Based on Berdichevsky's progress in Argentina, in 1962 she was one of two people awarded scholarships to continue studies at the University of London's Computer Unit for five months, followed by the same length of time at a French institution. She returned home the following year as an expert on the workings of Clementina. According to Berdichevsky,
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Cecilia Berdichevsky
Cecilia Berdichevsky or Berdichevski (née Tuwjasz; 30 March 1925 – 20 February 2010) was an Argentine computer scientist. She began her work in 1961 using the first Ferranti Mercury computer in that country.
She was born Mirjam Tuwjasz on 30 March 1925 to a Polish-Jewish family in Vidzy, at that time part of Poland, now Belarus.
Because of growing hostilities toward the Jewish community, first her father and then her mother Hoda and her emigrated to Argentina when she was four years old, where she adopted the name Cecilia, and she spent her childhood years in Avellaneda, south of the Buenos Aires suburbs. Her father died within a few years of arriving in their new home and her mother remarried a rich man.
Cecilia married Mario Berdichevsky, a physician from Avellaneda, in 1951.
Despite having a good job as a practicing accountant for ten years, she was not happy there having experienced many frustrations. A friend, computer scientist Rebeca Guber, advised her to study mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires, which changed her life.
At the age of 31, Berdichevsky began her studies of mathematics with Manuel Sadosky. There she had her first experience programming the new Ferranti Mercury computer, which became known by the nickname Clementina after someone programmed it to play the American song "Oh My Darling, Clementine". In 1961, when it arrived in Buenos Aires from England, Clementina, which cost US$300,000, was the most powerful computer in the country. It was 18 metres (59 ft) long, in narrow cabinets. It was the first large computer used for scientific purposes in the country; an IBM 1401 was installed in Buenos Aires for business use that year.
The newly graduated Berdichevsky studied computing with the visiting English software engineer Cicely Popplewell (who had worked with Alan Turing in Manchester) and with the Spanish mathematician Ernesto García Camarero. Popplewell motivated Berdichevsky to write and run the first program for the new computer, which required multiple arithmetic calculations. A photoelectric device read a punched paper ribbon that was used to submit the data, and Clementina produced the desired result in seconds.
Based on Berdichevsky's progress in Argentina, in 1962 she was one of two people awarded scholarships to continue studies at the University of London's Computer Unit for five months, followed by the same length of time at a French institution. She returned home the following year as an expert on the workings of Clementina. According to Berdichevsky,