Born: 18 October 1921, Mexico
Died: 8 May 1972
Country most active: Canada
Also known as: Trixie
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Beatrice Helen Worsley was a pioneering Canadian computer scientist. After serving in the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, she pursued a master’s program at MIT, focusing on mathematics and physics. Under the guidance of Henry Wallman, a prominent member of MIT’s Radiation Laboratory, she completed her thesis titled “A Mathematical Survey of Computing Devices with an Appendix on Error Analysis of Differential Analyzers.” This comprehensive work covered virtually all computing machines of the time, such as the Harvard Mark I and Mark II, various IBM mechanical and electromechanical calculating machines, Bell Labs’ relay-based digital computers, ENIAC, EDVAC, the IAS machine, Whirlwind I and II, and EDSAC.
The appendix meticulously examined various differential analyzer systems and their sources of errors. Worsley’s thesis remains one of the most detailed accounts of early computing.
Worsley furthered her studies at Newnham College, where she explored quantum physics, number theory, and numerical analysis. Her 1952 dissertation, “Serial Programming for Real and Idealized Digital Calculating Machines,” is recognized as the first Ph.D. thesis on modern computers. She contributed to Toronto’s Ferranti Mark 1 compiler and published influential papers in computer science. Additionally, she dedicated over two decades to teaching computer science and engineering at Queen’s University and the University of Toronto.