Portrait of Thelma Estrin

Birthday profile

Thelma Estrin

Thelma Estrin, American computer scientist and engineer (died 2014)

Born
February 21, 1924
Died
February 15, 2014
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1924

About Thelma Estrin

Thelma Estrin (née Austern; February 21, 1924 – February 15, 2014) was an American computer scientist and engineer who did pioneering work in the fields of expert systems and biomedical engineering. Estrin was one of the first to apply computer technology to healthcare and medical research. In 1954, Estrin helped to design the Weizmann Automatic Computer, or WEIZAC, the first computer in Israel and the Middle East, a moment marked as an IEEE Milestone in Electrical and Computer Engineering. She was professor emerita in the Department of Computer Science, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). == Early life and education == Estrin was born Thelma Austern in New York City in 1924 and attended public schools there. Demonstrating an early aptitude for mathematics, she began her higher education at City College of New York (CCNY) in 1941. In the same year she met her soon-to-be husband, Gerald Estrin, while at CCNY, marrying him when she was only 17. In 1942, Estrin took a three-month engineering assistant course at Stevens Institute of Technology in 1942, when Gerald entered the Army during World War II. Soon after she worked for two years at Radio Receptor Company building electronic devices where she developed an interest in engineering. In 1946, Estrin and her husband moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). In 1948, Estrin received a Bachelor of Science, her first of three degrees in electrical engineering from UW. Subsequently, she received her Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in 1949 and 1951, respectively.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Thelma Estrin timeline

  1. In 1948, Estrin received a Bachelor of Science, her first of three degrees in electrical engineering from UW.
  2. In 1954, Estrin helped to design the Weizmann Automatic Computer, or WEIZAC, the first computer in Israel and the Middle East, a moment marked as an IEEE Milestone in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The world when Thelma Estrin was born

Thelma Estrin was born in 1924. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1924

  • #1 song"It Had to Be You" – Isham Jones
  • Top movieThe Thief of Bagdad (Douglas Fairbanks)
  • Best-selling bookSo Big – Edna Ferber

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France
  • Top headlineCalvin Coolidge elected president in a landslide
  • Technology milestoneIBM founded
  • Defining fadMah-jongg craze sweeps America
  • Notable inventionSpiral-bound notebook
  • World population1.95 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championWashington Senators (World Series)
  • U.S. population114.1M

1924 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Thelma Estrin's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19242026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,800$435,000
Average income$3,520$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population114.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, DBLP, ACM Digital Library, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.