488
13
Prof David Skellern AO and Dr Cathy Foley were inducted into the 2025 Pearcey Hall of Fame at the Pearcey
National Awards event. The presentations were part of the 70th anniversary of the University of Melbourne School of Computing and
Information Systems celebration evening held at Melbourne Connect on 21 November 2025.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/488/cathy-foley.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/awards/national/pearcey-hall-of-fame/2025-pearcey-hall-of-fame/
2025-11-21 09:00:00
473
26
Guest blog by Barbara Ainsworth
Mary Lee Woods enjoyed a short career in Australia at Mount
Stromlo. Her son, Tim Berners-Lee, is known as the “Father of the Web”. Mary accepted the name “Grandmother of the Web’. She should be
celebrated for her own career in programming.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/473/Mary-Lee-Berners-Lee-c.1940s-377x456.png
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/initiatives/computing-history/grandmother-of-the-web/
2025-06-22 14:00:00
423
36
Ada Lovelace Day honours all the innovative women in STEM, commemorating their ingenuity that has changed the course of
history.
Proudly sponsored by the Pearcey Foundation.
The Monash University Faculty of IT is exploring the role of Australian women in early digital computing – and the opportunities in the
future. Join us for insightful speeches, a thought-provoking panel discussion and networking over a light lunch in our celebration ‘Australian
women in IT yesterday, today and tomorrow’
which will be opened by Professor Ann Nicholson, the first female Dean of our faculty. It will then venture into the life of Ada
Lovelace and how women can carry on her legacy of impact today and tomorrow.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/423/Ada-Lovelace-1463x2294_transparent.png
url
https://www.monash.edu/it/events/2023/ada-lovelace-day
2023-10-04 05:25:00
369
22
Ada Lovelace Day with a look at some remarkable
achievements that women have made in STEM.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/369/conv-oct21-her-story.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/events/conversations/conversation-her-story/
2021-10-12 05:00:00
6
7
It traces the life, loves and career path, in UK and Australia, of a courageous and very competent woman from the earliest days of the computer age, through to the current times.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/6/IT-Girl-jpeg-cover.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/the-it-girl-by-ann-moffatt/
2020-12-08 00:00:00
211
7
Dr Cathy Foley AO, currently CSIRO Chief Scientist, and from December 2020, will become Chief Scientist of Australia.
Cathy has made distinguished contributions to the understanding of superconducting materials and to the development of devices using
superconductors for a number of applications including to detect magnetic fields and locate valuable deposits of minerals.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/211/Dr-Cathy-Foley.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/appointment-of-dr-cathy-foley-as-chief-scientist-australia/
2020-11-09 09:00:00
374
22
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/374/conv-oct20-women-au.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/events/conversations/conversation-celebrating-womens-contribution/
2020-10-13 03:00:00
8
3
Guest blog by Helen Vorrath
So you’ve decided to become an IT professional when you grow up? Good choice! You’ve already discovered the satisfaction of getting a
program to work – that will continue to excite you for the rest of your life. You’ll also find that debugging the things that don’t work is
equally rewarding.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/8/a-letter-to-my-younger-self-Helen-Vorrath.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/a-letter-to-my-younger-self-helen-vorrath/
2020-10-12 00:00:00
7
3
Guest blog by Ann Moffatt
This is an extract from Ann Moffatt’s book, The IT Girl, which is to be published in November 2020.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/7/a-letter-to-my-younger-self-Ann-Moffatt.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/a-letter-to-my-younger-self-ann-moffatt/
2020-10-12 00:00:00
9
7
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/9/ARchivesWEBone.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/gender-no-barrier-for-dr-skaidrite-darius/
2020-09-28 00:00:00
10
7
adventurous days with all card systems and low-level programming languages.
]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/10/Jan-Kornweibel-ACS-square.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/a-legacy-of-computing-excellence-jan-kornweibel/
2020-09-24 00:00:00
15
7
Guest blog by Barbara Ainsworth
A huge opportunity arose in the heady days of Australian rocket science research in the mid-twentieth century for female mathematicians. Job
opportunities for female mathematics graduates were not common apart from teaching but there was an alternative. In the 1950s a girl could
become a Computer, that is, a human computer who performs mathematical calculations rather than a digital, electronic computer.
]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/15/WIT-1.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/girls-computers-and-rocket-science/
2020-06-30 00:00:00
220
75
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/220/Jenine-Beekhuyzen.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2020/dr-jenine-beekhuyzen-awarded-oam/
2020-06-08 13:30:00
226
7
Alison Harcourt (nee Doig) is an alumnus and past staff member of the University of Melbourne. At 89 years of
age, she is still tutoring at the University in her speciality field of mathematics, namely Statistics. Alison was recognised in this
year's Queens Birthday Honours list with an Order of Australia. The Pearcey Foundation honours Ms Harcourt for a lifelong commitment to
mathematics.]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/226/Alison-Harcourt.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2019/recognition-for-alison-harcourt-ao/
2019-06-12 13:15:00
235
27
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/235/Brenda-Ansley-OAM.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2018/vale-brenda-aynsley-oam/
2018-08-12 13:30:00
244
7
Sandy Plunkett is perplexed by how entrenched Australia's "waiting for government" mindset is
When economists Paul Frijters and Gigi Foster released a study in
2015arguing
Australia was a plutocracy where our richest amass their wealth by political connections rather than innovative endeavour, the struggling
tech startup community should have been all over the data.
]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/244/Sandy-Plunkett-2017.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2017/innovation-in-a-handout-culture/
2017-07-12 08:52:00
245
28
Sandy Plunkett shares her perspective on recent industry events and calls out how money, fame, power and hubris inevitably brings
with it bad behaviour]]>
https://www.pearcey.org.au/media/website_posts/245/gender-balance.jpg
page
https://www.pearcey.org.au/blog/2017/beware-the-wolves-of-silicon-valley/
2017-07-06 08:54:00