Women’s History Month 2024: Celebrating Women Who Power the Energy Industry

In celebration of Women’s History Month 2024, we’re recognizing remarkable contributions from women whose ingenuity, leadership and perseverance catalyzed critical transformation in the energy sector. From pioneers in renewable energy to influential policy makers and engineers who have revolutionized how we harness and distribute energy, we’re celebrating a few of the many women who have laid the groundwork for a more inclusive and forward-thinking industry. Keep reading as we share parts of their stories and recognize the exceptional impacts they’ve made in powering the energy industry forward. 

Edith Clarke 
Edith Clarke was the first woman to earn her master’s in electrical engineering from MIT and to be professionally employed as an electric engineer in the United States. After working on electric power transmission line problems at General Electric for 26 years, she taught electrical engineering (EE) at the University of Texas, Austin, where she became the first female EE professor in the U.S. and worked there until she retired. Between 1923 and 1951, Clarke authored or co-authored nineteen technical papers. She became the first women elected a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and received a lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers, which highlighted her ability to simplify laborious calculations in the design and operation of electrical power systems and her work in system instability.¹  

Grace Hopper 
Grace Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States naval officer. Hopper is best known for her trailblazing contributions to computer programming, software development, and the design and implementation of programming languages. In 1952, she developed the first compiler called A-O, which translated mathematical code into machine-readable code, and this was a critical step toward creating modern programming languages. She retired from the Navy as a rear admiral at the age of 97 – the oldest serving officer in the U.S. armed forces. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named after her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC. Although she passed away in 1996, she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 in recognition of her lifelong leadership role in the field of computer science.²  

Dr. Shirley Jackson 
Dr. Shirley Jackson was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate at MIT and is responsible for monumental telecommunications research that led to the invention of products such as the touch-tone phone, portable fax, fiber optic cables and caller ID. In 1994, she served as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where she developed and implemented regulations for assessing risk at the country’s nuclear power plants. In 1999, Jackson returned to academia and became the 18th president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While in this position, Dr. Jackson worked to reduce the student-faculty ratio, increase research funding and facilitate the addition of new facilities. During her presidential tenure at RPI, applications to the school nearly quadrupled and research dollars tripled.³ 

Maria Telkes 
Born in Hungary, Maria Telkes made a name for herself in the field of solar energy research and development as ‘the Sun Queen.” After earning her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Budapest, she moved to the United States and joined the Cleveland Clinic Foundation as a biophysicist, where her work with George Washington Crile, a well-known surgeon, led to the development of a photoelectric device to measure brain waves. During World War II, she invented and patented an emergency desalination kit that used solar power to make seawater drinkable for pilots and sailors stranded in the Pacific. After the war, she created the first solar-powered home heating system in the late 1940s and helped the U.S. Department of Energy create the first solar-electric residence.⁴ 

Vivian Yam Wing-Wah 
Professor Vivian Wing-Wah Yam is a chemist whose work on brighter and more efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) has led to the development of more efficient displays for mobile phones and laptops. As a professor in Chemistry and Energy at the University of Hong Kong and an Associate Editor of Inorganic Chemistry, her aim is to reduce the amount of energy used in lighting by developing much more efficient lights and displays as well other use cases, such as increasing digital data storage capacity. Yam’s research on organometallic luminophores helped develop OLEDs into the well-known and widely used technology they are today. She also happens to be the youngest female ever elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.⁵ 

Stay tuned for upcoming blogs in celebration of Women’s History Month, where we’ll spotlight the talented women of Itron who are driving innovation, inspiring their colleagues and leading the way for future generations of women.