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Mary Ann Mansigh

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Mary Ann Mansigh
Born1932 (1932)
DiedAugust 24, 2024(2024-08-24) (aged 91–92)
Known forComputer programmer

Mary Ann Ruth Mansigh Karlsen (1932 – August 24, 2024)[1] was an American computer programmer who was active in the 1950s in the use of scientific computers.[2]

Biography

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Mansigh attended the University of Minnesota on a scholarship from 1950 to 1954, where she studied physics, chemistry and mathematics.[1] In 1955, she took a position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a software engineer,[3] where she would remain until she retired in 1994, working on over 13 generations of supercomputers from the UNIVAC (1955) to the Cray I (1994).[1]

At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she worked with Berni Alder and Tom Wainwright in the implementation of molecular dynamics in the mid twentieth century,[4][5] ultimately working exclusively with Alder for over twenty-five years.[3][6] She is regarded as a pioneer in programming and computing, particularly molecular dynamics computing,[7][8] whom Dutch computational physicist Daan Frenkel noted as being one of the very few notable female computer programmers, with Arianna W. Rosenbluth, that were active in the 1950s and 1960s.[9]

Initially forgotten, except in annotations and oral transcripts, she has received increased attention in recent times,[1] with events and talks on her legacy.[7] In 2019, she had a lecture series at the Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire (CECAM) named in her honour.[10][11] Modern academics have noted her unfair absence as an author in published academic papers describing the results of computer programmes designed with her pioneering molecular dynamics computing code.[12]

Mansigh died on August 24, 2024 at the age of 91.[13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Jollien, Nathalie (4 November 2018). "Interview: Mary Ann Mansigh Karlsen, codeuse de la première heure" (in French). École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  2. ^ "PRL Top Ten: #3". American Physical Society.
  3. ^ a b Battimelli, Giovanni; Ciccotti, Giovanni; Greco, Pietro (2020). Computer Meets Theoretical Physics The New Frontier of Molecular Simulation. Springer International Publishing. pp. 45–46. ISBN 9783030393991. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  4. ^ Mansigh Karlsen, Mary Ann (April 2017). "The Early Years of Molecular Dynamics and Computers at UCRL, LRL, LLL, and LLNL". In Schwegler, Eric; Rubenstein, Brenda M.; Libby Stephen B. (eds.). Advances in the Computational Sciences: Symposium in Honor of Dr Berni Alder's 90th Birthday. World Scientific Publishing. pp. 176–183. Bibcode:2017acs..conf..176M. doi:10.1142/9789813209428_0012. ISBN 9789813209428. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  5. ^ "Almost famous, a woman behind the codes: Mary Ann Mansigh Karlsen". Swiss National Science Foundation (NCCR-Marvel). 15 November 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2021. CECAM and NCCR MARVEL have the pleasure to invite you on Wednesday November 15 at 17:30 to meet a truly outstanding representative of the first generation of coders: Mary Ann Mansigh Karlsen
  6. ^ "Materials Cloud". www.materialscloud.org.
  7. ^ a b "Exclusively female lunch: Tales of a Computer Pioneer with Mary Ann Mansigh Karlsen". École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Media Coverage: Role of women in the early history of computer simulation, CECAM, Lausanne". Nanotrans. 11 May 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2021. Daan Frenkel participated in the conversatory "Role of women in the early history of computer simulation" (Dissemination about computer simulation in general): Symposium at CECAM, Lausanne, honouring Mary Ann Mansigh, pioneer of Molecular Dynamics Simulations
  9. ^ Frankel, Daan (2013). "Simulations: The dark side" (PDF). European Physical Journal Plus. 128 (10): 4. arXiv:1211.4440. Bibcode:2013EPJP..128...10F. doi:10.1140/epjp/i2013-13010-8. S2CID 119218193. However, he/she (more "he" than "she" in the 50's and 60's — Arianna Rosenbluth and Mary-Ann Mansigh are notable exceptions) would not have been able to predict the tools that we now use to study rare events, quantum systems or free-energy landscapes.
  10. ^ "CECAM/MARVEL Mary Ann Mansigh Conversation Series – Computer modelling for industrial applications". École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. 5 August 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  11. ^ Mendonça, Ana Catarina (December 2019). "CECAM (also) celebrates its 50th birthday in 2019". École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  12. ^ Ervik, Åsmund (March 2016). "3". Multiscale modelling using molecular dynamics and interfacecapturing methods (PDF). Norwegian University of Science and Technology. p. 53. ISBN 978-82-326-1687-9. Retrieved 13 February 2021. It is noteworthy (and sad) that the early female programmers, like Mary Ann Mansigh who wrote the first molecular dynamics code, or Mary Tsingou who wrote the code for the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam model in 1954, were not included as authors on the papers describing the results
  13. ^ "In Memoriam | Mary Ann Ruth (Mansigh) Karlsen". Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. October 3, 2024.
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