Judith Love Cohen's high-school counselor recommended a finishing school, but Cohen wanted to pursue mathematics and engineering. She went on to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Southern California.
Her career included work on the Apollo Lunar Module’s Abort Guidance System. The backup technology became important during Apollo 13, when an explosion forced the astronauts to rely on the lunar module while teams worked to bring them home. Cohen contributed to that system as part of a wider engineering effort.
She also worked on the ground systems for the Hubble Space Telescope. After her engineering career, she wrote children's books encouraging girls to explore scientific and creative work. Titles in the collection included You Can Be a Woman Engineer and You Can Be a Woman Animator.
Sources: viterbi.usc.edu www.lemelson.org