Well before the creation of the world wide web, there was the "open hypermedia system" Microcosm, put together at the University of Southampton in the UK by Wendy Hall – then just 32 – and her colleagues in 1984.
Just 10 years later she became the first female professor of engineering at the university, and in 2000 she was made a CBE for her services to science and technology.
Now the woman who is deemed one of the top computer scientists in the world has been made a Dame in the Queen’s New Year’s Honors list. According to the BBC, Hall was president of the British Computer Society 2003-2004, then in 2005 became the first woman to be appointed senior vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She also co-founded the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) with web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and others.
