Judith Love Cohen
Personal Information
Born: 1933
Died: 2016
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Brooklyn College 2 years of study in Engineering, no degree; USC BS 1957 & MS 1962 both in Engineering; UCLA Engineering Executive Program 1982
"“The only time I saw a woman doing anything interesting — I had a math teacher who was a woman. So I decided, OK, I’ll be a math teacher.” (allthatsinteresting.com); "
— Judith Love Cohen
Professional Life
Field of Study: Aerospace Engineer
Institution/Corporation: TRW; Northrop Grumman ; NASA
Degrees & Memberships: Member: Board of USC's Astronautical Engineering Advisory; Society of Women Engineers
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2014, IEEE-USA Distinguished Literary Contributions Award; Outstanding Engineer Award from the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering;
Achievements: her work on the Abort-Guidance System is credited with helping save Apollo 13.; was an electrical engineer on the Minuteman missile, the science ground station for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and the Apollo Space Program; founded a children's multimedia publishing company (Cascade Pass), eventually publishing more than 20 titles before her death in 2016;
By fifth grade, her classmates were paying her to do their math homework
by age 19 was dancing ballet in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet company in New York
said that she went through both her BS and MS programs at USC without ever meeting another female engineering student
1957, she went on to work at Space Technology Laboratories which became TRW (acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002) & retired from there in 1990
with her third husband, David Katz published two series of books: The "You Can be a Woman … " series was created to encourage very young girls to pursue careers in science and engineering & The "Green" series focuses on promoting positive environmental practices, aimed at young children
is the mother of actor Jack Black
as a child, sewed lace doilies
a guidance counselor once suggested she go to finishing school and “learn to be a lady”
took a work problem to the hospital as she gave birth to Jack Black, her youngest, and later called her boss to tell him that she’d solved the problem — and that, yes the baby was born
according to her son, Neil Siegel, many of the things we take for granted in today's work environment like the posting of job openings inside of a company so that anyone could apply, formal job descriptions for every position, and so forth – were her creations & she had a profound impact on equality in the workforce