Women's History Month - J.K.Rowling

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 18 - J. K. Rowling - Author

J.K. Rowling has a rags to riches history.  She is most famous for the Harry Potter series. In a world where technology rules, J.K. Rowling inspired millions of children to read.  

Women's History Month - Eileen Marie Collins

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference.  

Day 17- EILEEN MARIE COLLINS (COLONEL, USAF, RET.)
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER) First Female Shuttle Pilot

PERSONAL DATA: Born November 19, 1956, in Elmira, New York. Married. She enjoys running, golf, hiking, camping, reading, photography, astronomy.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Elmira Free Academy, Elmira, New York, in 1974; received an associate in science degree in mathematics/science from Corning Community College in 1976; a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Syracuse University in 1978; a master of science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986; and a master of arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989.

SPECIAL HONORS: Defense Superior Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for service in Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury, October 1983), French Legion of Honor, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Space Flight Medals, Free Spirit Award, and the National Space Trophy.

EXPERIENCE: Collins graduated in 1979 from Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance AFB, Oklahoma, where she was a T-38 instructor pilot until 1982. From 1983 to 1985, she was a C-141 aircraft commander and instructor pilot at Travis AFB, California. She spent the following year as a student with the Air Force Institute of Technology. From 1986 to 1989, she was assigned to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, where she was an assistant professor in mathematics and a T-41 instructor pilot. She was selected for the astronaut program while attending the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, California, from which she graduated in 1990.

She has logged over 6,751 hours in 30 different types of aircraft. Collins retired from the Air Force in January 2005.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in January 1990, Collins became an astronaut in July 1991. Initially assigned to Orbiter engineering support, Collins has also served on the astronaut support team responsible for Orbiter prelaunch checkout, final launch configuration, crew ingress/egress, landing/recovery, worked in Mission Control as a spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), served as the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems Branch Chief, Chief Information Officer, Shuttle Branch Chief, and Astronaut Safety Branch Chief. Collins served as pilot on STS-63 (February 3-11, 1995) and STS-84 (May 15-24, 1997), and was the commander on STS-93 (July 22-27, 1999) and STS-114 (July 26 to August 9, 2005). A veteran of four space flights, Collins has logged over 872 hours in space. Collins retired from NASA in May 2006.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS -63 Discovery (February 3-11, 1995) was the first flight of the new joint Russian-American Space Program. Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir, operation of Spacehab, the deployment and retrieval of an astronomy satellite, and a space walk. Collins was the first woman pilot of a Space Shuttle.

STS -84 Atlantis (May 15-24, 1997) was NASA’s sixth Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. During the flight, the crew conducted a number of secondary experiments and transferred nearly 4 tons of supplies and experiment equipment between Atlantis and the Mir station.

STS -93 Columbia (July 23-27, 1999) was the first Shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman. STS -93 highlighted the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Designed to conduct comprehensive studies of the universe, the telescope has enabled scientists to study exotic phenomena such as exploding stars, quasars, and black holes. On STS-93, Collins was the first woman Shuttle Commander.

STS -114 Discovery (July 26-August 9, 2005) was the Return to Flight mission during which the Shuttle docked with the International Space Station and the crew tested and evaluated new procedures for flight safety and Shuttle inspection and repair techniques. After a 2-week, 5.8 million mile journey in space, the orbiter and its crew of seven astronauts returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. (Reprinted From NASA’s Website)

Women's History Month - Mary Walton

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 16 - Mary Walton - Inventor 

Anti-pollution devices

The major scientific shortcoming of the Industrial Revolution that transformed the U.S. in the years after the Civil War was, and still is, pollution. One of the pioneers in the fight against pollution, especially in large cities, was the independent inventor Mary Walton.

As early as 1879, Walton developed a method for minimizing the environmental hazards of the smoke that up until then was pouring unchecked from factories all over the country. Walton’s system (patent #221,880) deflected the emissions being produced into water tanks, where the pollutants were retained and then flushed into the city sewage system.

Some years later, Walton applied her ingenuity to a different kind of air pollution—-noise. The elevated trains being installed throughout the larger cities of the U.S. in the 1880s were producing an intolerable amount of rattling and clanging: sociologists even blamed the noise for some urbanites’ nervous breakdowns and neuroses! Walton, who lived in Manhattan, set out to solve the problem. She set up a model railroad track in her basement, and in time discovered an excellent sound-dampening apparatus. She cradled the rails in a box-like framework of wood, which was painted with tar, lined with cotton, and filled with sand. As the vibrations from the rails were absorbed by the surrounding materials, so was the sound.

After successful trials fitting her apparatus under the struts that supported real els, Walton received patent #237,422 (granted February 8, 1881). She sold the rights to New York City’s Metropolitan Railroad, which thrived thanks to Walton’s new, environment-friendly system. Walton herself was hailed as a hero—-and as a feminist. As the Woman’s Journal put it twenty years later: “The most noted machinists and inventors of the century [Thomas Edison among them] had given their attention to the subject without being able to provide a solution, when, lo, a woman’s brain did the work…” (Reprint from MIT School of Engineering)  [Nov. 1996]

Women's History Month - Grace Murray Hopper

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference. 

Day 15 - Grace Murray Hopper - Educator, Navy Officer, Inventor of computer language programs

Grace Murray Hopper, American Navy officer, mathematician, and pioneer in data processing, born in New York City and educated at Vassar College and at Yale University. An associate professor of mathematics at Vassar, In 1930 Grace Brewster Murray married Vincent Foster Hopper. (He died in 1945 during World War II, and they had no children.)   Hopper joined the Na-vy in 1943. She was assigned to Howard Aiken’s computation lab at Harvard University, where she worked as a programmer on the Mark I, the first large-scale U.S. computer and a precursor of electronic computers.

Well known for her work in the 1950s and 1960s at the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, later part of Sperry Rand, Hopper was credited with devising the first compiler (1952), a program that translates instructions for a computer from English to machine language. She helped develop the Flow-Matic programming language (1957) and the Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL; 1959-61) for the UNIVAC, the first commercial electronic computer. She worked to attract industry and business interests to computers and to bridge the gulf between management and programmers. Hopper taught and lectured extensively throughout the 1960s. She retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve only to be recalled to oversee the navy’s program to standardize its computer programs and languages. She was elevated to the rank of captain by a special act of Congress in 1973 and to the rank of rear admiral in 1983. Hopper retired from the navy in 1986 and served as a senior consultant with Digital Equipment Corporation. (Reprinted from Idea Finder)

Women's History Month - Lisa Vallino & Betty Rozier

In recognition of Women’s History Month, Smithtown Matters is proud to recognize the accomplishments of women.  It is fascinating to learn the wonderful and interesting ways women have made their mark on the world.  Throughout March, SmithtownMatters will give a brief history of women who made a difference.

Day 13 and 14 - Betty M. Rozier & Lisa M. Vallino

Intravenous Catheter Shield

The mother-daughter team of Betty M. Rozier and Lisa M. Vallino, of Hazelwood, Missouri, has invented a simple device that makes it safer and easier for hospitals to provide patients with IVs.

Lisa Vallino, RN BSN, has worked for many years as an emergency room and pediatrics nurse. Like most nurses, she learned to improvise methods of treatment in the absence of standard equipment. For example, nurses commonly used to cut a plastic cup in half and then tape it for protection around the site where an IV needle enters an arm or leg; this makeshift method was clumsy and could even be dangerous.

Vallino decided to invent a better way. She designed a polyethylene site protector, shaped like a computer mouse, that is soft, smooth-edged, transparent, and attachable with a single piece of tape. The “IV House” is safer, quicker and less expensive than other methods of IV site protection. It also reduces physical and emotional trauma to patients: its security means less accidental dislodging of the IV —which means fewer painful reinsertions; while its shielding makes especially young patients less tempted themselves to worry, or worry about, the device—which means less need for restraints.

Vallino enlisted her mother, Betty Rozier, to help research, refine, patent and market the device. Since earning a patent in 1993, the duo’s on-site demonstrations have convinced over 100 hospitals to make the IV House standard equipment. In addition, Vallino and especially Rozier give lectures in the St. Louis area, with a special focus on encouraging girls and young women to pursue careers in business and the sciences.

Betty Rozier and Lisa Vallino have won local and national awards for their inventiveness and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, their IV House continues every year to benefit more health care providers and patients nationwide.

Reprint from Inventor of the Week Archive [March 1998]