Edith Clarke

About Edith Clarke

Who is it?: Electrical Engineer
Birth Day: February 10, 1883
Birth Place: Howard County, United States
Died On: October 29, 1959(1959-10-29) (aged 76)
Birth Sign: Pisces
Residence: Massachusetts, United States
Alma mater: Vassar College Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Awards: National Inventors Hall of Fame
Fields: Electrical Engineering
Institutions: General Electric University of Texas at Austin

Edith Clarke Net Worth

Edith Clarke was born on February 10, 1883 in Howard County, United States, is Electrical Engineer. Edith Clarke was the first woman to earn an electrical engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was also the first female professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Born into a prosperous family in Maryland in the late 19th century, she was not expected to become a career woman but a wife, mother, and gracious hostess. The determined young woman did not let societal expectations hinder her professional aspirations and went on to become one of the best known engineers of her era. After studying mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College she embarked on a career as a teacher. While working in this position she realized her true interest in engineering, a field women in the early 20th century seldom ventured into. She spent some time studying civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and but left it and proceeded to earn an electrical engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), becoming the first woman to do so. Being a woman she was unable to find work as an engineer but she persevered and eventually became an electrical engineer in the Central Station Engineering Department of General Electric and achieved considerable success with the company. After leaving GE she joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin.
Edith Clarke is a member of Inventors & Discoverers

💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Biography/Timeline

1883

Edith Clarke was born February 10, 1883, in Howard County, Maryland to John Ridgely Clarke and Susan Dorsey Owings, one of nine children. After being orphaned at age 12, she was raised by her older sister. She used her inheritance to study mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College, where she graduated in 1908.

1918

In 1918, Clarke enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the following year she became the first woman to earn an M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT.

1921

In 1921, still unable to obtain a position as an Engineer, she left GE to teach physics at the Constantinople Women's College in Turkey. The next year, she was re-hired by GE as an electrical Engineer in the Central Station Engineering Department. Clarke retired from General Electric in 1945.

1926

Her background in mathematics helped her achieve fame in her field. On February 8, 1926, as the first woman to deliver a paper at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers' annual meeting, she showed the use of hyperbolic functions for calculating the maximum power that a line could carry without instability. Two of her later papers won awards from the AIEE: the Best Regional Paper Prize in 1932 and the Best National Paper Prize in 1941.

1943

In 1943, Edith Clarke wrote an influential textbook in the field of power engineering, Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems, based on her notes for lectures to GE Engineers.

1947

In 1947, she joined the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin, making her the first female professor of Electrical Engineering in the country. She taught for ten years and retired in 1957.

1948

Edith Clarke was the first female Engineer to achieve professional standing in Tau Beta Pi. In 1948, Clarke was the first female Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. In 1954, she received the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award.

2013

After college, Clarke taught mathematics and physics at a private school in San Francisco and at Marshall College. She then spent some time studying civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but left to become a "computer" at AT&T in 1912. She computed for George Campbell, who applied mathematical methods to the problems of long-distance electrical transmissions. While at AT&T, she studied electrical engineering at Columbia University by night.

2015

In 2015, Clarke was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.