First Woman to Earn a PhD in Computer Science from Rutgers is Still Shaping the Field
Written by John Chadwick | School of Arts and Sciences
Elaine Weyuker has a knack for breaking down barriers.
In 1977 she became the first woman to receive a PhD in computer science from Rutgers. Later that year she joined New York University’s Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences as its first female professor of computer science.
In a nearly five-decade career that cut across academia and industry, Weyuker has been a trailblazer in a discipline dominated by men, mentoring generations of students and helping to pioneer the field of software testing.
But this voluble Bronx native with a gently irreverent sense of humor said she never followed an exacting plan for success.
She followed her own internal voice.
“I’m not sure what I was thinking,” she quipped. “It was not like I was loaded with self-confidence.