Thelma Estrin

Pioneering biomedical engineer

• Born: February 21, 1924
• Place of Birth: New York, New York
• Died: February 15, 2014
• Place of Death: Santa Monica, California

Primary Company/Organization: University of California, Los Angeles

Introduction

Thelma Estrin, a pioneer in biomedical engineering, used computer technology and electrical engineering to solve problems in health care and medical research. She was one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in engineering and designed the first system for analog-digital conversion of electrical activity from the nervous system. Throughout her career as a researcher and a professor, she served as a role model for other young women who would wish to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, or medicine. She broke the barriers of gender and religious discrimination that existed in the corporate and research professions.

Early Life

Estrin was born Thelma Austern on February 21, 1924, to Jewish parents in Harlem in New York City. She was a premature twin at three pounds, and at birth her sibling died in the hospital. Thelma's mother, Mary Ginsburg Austern, was extremely focused on the care of her only daughter and would have no other children. Thelma's father, I. Billy Austern, was a traveling shoe salesman and often out of town, so Mary had a major influence on her daughter's development. Prior to marriage, Mary had managed an automobile parts store and even knew how to drive, unusual for women at that time. After marriage, Mary was active in the Democratic Party and the Freemasons in the Order of the Eastern Star. She also always helped the sick, elderly, and troubled while still running a household and ensuring that Thelma had a hot lunch every day. Her mother's influence shaped Estrin's belief that one should be socially useful and independent.

From an early age, Estrin was a fast learner and always received good grades. Throughout elementary school, she had helped her apartment repairman's son with his homework. At the same time, Estrin was sloppy and absent-minded; she typically had ink stains on her hands and clothes, and she loved to play sports. It is possible that she had inherited this type of energy from her father, who also enjoyed sports and lively entertainment.

At Abraham Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, a Brooklyn neighborhood where her family had moved during the Depression, Estrin developed an interest in politics and social justice. She joined the left-wing American Student Union, much to the dismay of her parents. Her mother had hoped that Estrin would become a lawyer, and the father of her best childhood friend had advised her to major in Spanish and become a commercial secretary. She had always been good in math, however, and took extra mathematics courses during her senior year; her first boyfriend, Richard Bellman, was head of the high school mathematics team and later received a Medal of Honor from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his work in applied mathematics. Their political differences, however, led to their breakup.

Estrin enrolled in City College of New York (CCNY) in January 1941 to become an accountant. She chose CCNY because it accepted only seventy-five women per year; to be chosen was an honor. CCNY was also close to home, and her mother was dying of cancer. In June, she met CCNY history major Gerald Estrin through the American Student Union; they were married in December, two weeks after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entry into World War II. During this period Estrin's parents both died.

In 1942, Gerald enlisted in the Army Signal Corps; he learned how to make electromagnetic relays at Kurman Electric Company before being called to active duty. At that point, Estrin took a three-month engineering assistant course at Stevens Institute of Technology. The course prepared her to work for two years at the Radio Receptor Company. She started in the tool and model shop but was transferred to the company laboratory, where she assembled test equipment and repaired radio transmitters. At this time, CCNY opened the doors of its engineering school to women, and after work Estrin took classes there.

In 1945, the Army sent Gerald to San Bernardino, California, where Estrin joined him, working as a radio technician for the Army Air Force. When the European phase of the war ended, Gerald was transferred to Salt Lake City, Utah, and Estrin returned to New York City to resume her engineering classes. In December, Gerald was discharged from the Army; three months later, the couple moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to pursue undergraduate electrical engineering degrees at the University of Wisconsin. They supported themselves through the GI Bill, part-time work as teaching assistants, and the sale of Estrin's mother's diamond ring.

By working eighteen hours a day without vacations, Estrin earned her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in 1948, 1949, and 1951, respectively. As a graduate student, Gerald received research assistantships while Estrin received only teaching assistantships. It was assumed that a woman would lose interest in engineering once she had children. Estrin wished to balance her career and family obligations and concentrated on analytical rather than experimental electrical engineering. Her graduate research involved improved methods of calculation and problem solving.

Life's Work

After Estrin earned her Ph.D., Gerald received an offer to join John von Neumann's computer project at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS); the Estrins moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Estrin had worked on this project for a few months, testing and documenting the arithmetic unit of the machine, but she wanted to work in a different place from her husband.

In 1951, Estrin finally found a position at the Electroencephalography Department of the Neurological Institute of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. There she oversaw the maintenance of the clinical electroencephalography (EEG) equipment to ensure consistent performance. She also had the opportunity to collaborate with doctors on EEG and electromyography (EMG) studies. She made many improvements to existing systems, including the circuit design of a frequency analyzer for bioelectric potentials; she increased its stability and tunability. She also collaborated on a study of the action potential and refractory period of striated muscle. The Estrins would often go out to dinner with von Neumann and his wife, where she and von Neumann would discuss the electrical activity of the nervous system.

In 1952, Gerald had an opportunity to assist in the building of a computer at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, near Tel Aviv. At that time, IAS planned to build versions of its computer at a dozen locations in the United States and Europe. Estrin accompanied Gerald with their three-month-old daughter, Margo, visiting computer groups in England, the Netherlands, France, and Italy before arriving in Israel. Upon arrival at the Weizmann Institute, Gerald was appointed director of the project, and Estrin was a principal member of the engineering group. After six months of redesigning the system, the WEIZAC computer performed its first calculation and became the first electronic computer in the Middle East. Estrin had her second daughter, Judith, while working in Israel.

After returning to Princeton in April 1955, Gerald resumed work at IAS and Estrin took a position as a mathematics instructor at Rutgers University in order to be closer to her two daughters. In 1956, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), hired Gerald to develop a computer engineering program; the family moved again. UCLA policies would not allow Estrin to work at the School of Engineering with Gerald, so she found a half-time teaching position at Valley College, a community college in Los Angeles. She taught there for two years and also worked as a consultant.

In 1959, Professor H. W. Magoun of the UCLA Medical School developed an interdisciplinary neuroscience program there, leading to the establishment of the Brain Research Institute (BRI). After the birth of her third daughter, Deborah, Estrin was recognized by BRI for her work at Columbia on electroencephalography. In 1960, she was hired by BRI to organize a conference on computers in brain research. The conference made more biomedical researchers realize the potential of computers as research tools. After the conference, physiologist Mary A.B. Brazier, anatomy professor Ross Adey, M.D., and BRI director John D. French asked Estrin to draft a proposal to establish a data-processing laboratory at BRI. Estrin's proposal included funding for the design and implementation of an analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) system that would translate the electric “spikes” of neurons into numeric data. This system saved time and provided real-time analyses of neuron-firing patterns.

Estrin worked in various areas of BRI during her tenure at UCLA, focusing on improvements in the Data Processing Laboratory (DPL). In 1965, she designed a time-sharing system that would permit data processing in real time, while an experiment was conducted, at a number of BRI laboratories. In 1969, BRI director French asked Estrin to become acting director of DPL and to head a task force that would recommend improvements for lab organization; she became DPL director in 1970.

During the 1970s, Estrin pioneered the use of interactive graphics as a tool for neuroscientists and neurosurgeons, collaborating with multiple researchers, including Robert Sclabassi and Richard Buchness. In a 1974 paper, Estrin, Sclabassi, and Buchness described a computer system that combined diagnostic information from x-ray scans of a human head with general neuroanatomical brain atlas pictures to compute and graphically present a brain map. This work also made it possible to simulate and display the movement of an instrument while being used for an operation. The system could be used to plan an operation or monitor an existing one. During this time she also taught two courses, one on electronics for neuroscience and a graduate seminar on computer applications in health care delivery.

In 1980, Estrin was allowed to transfer to the UCLA Computer Science Department of the School of Engineering and Applied Science to pursue her research interests in biomedical computing. She retired in July 1991 at the age of sixty-seven.

Estrin earned many honors for her work, including Outstanding Engineer of the Year Award from the California Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, the Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers, the Superior Accomplishment Award from the National Science Foundation, and the Pioneer in Computing Award from the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing. She received the honorary degree of doctor of science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1989 and was awarded a Fulbright fellowship at the Weizmann Institute in Israel to study EEG patterns in epileptics. She is also a founding Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a 1977 IEEE Life Fellow “for contributions to the design and application of computer systems for neurophysical and brain research.” She served as president of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society and on the Technical Activities Board. In 1982, she became IEEE's first female vice president and the first woman to be elected to the IEEE Board of Directors. Estrin was later named to the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 1999.

Estrin died in Santa Monica, California, on February 15, 2014, at the age of eighty-nine.

Personal Life

Despite the long, hard hours of their careers, Thelma and Gerald Estrin had an active social life and enjoyed a marriage lasting more than seventy years. They enjoyed hosting dinner parties, walking on the beach, watching basketball, playing tennis, and attending the Metropolitan Opera. They had three daughters: Margo, a medical doctor; Judith, senior vice president of Cisco Systems; and Deborah, a computer science professor at the University of Southern California. The time Thelma and Gerald spent in Israel made them identify more strongly with Judaism. Their daughters all spoke Hebrew and maintained certain Jewish traditions, and the family members made annual visits to Israel. Gerald died on March 29, 2012.

Bibliography

Estrin, Judy. Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. E-book.

Estrin, Thelma. “Oral-History: Thelma Estrin.” Interview by Janet Abbate. IEEE Global History Network. 2002. Web. 28 June 2012.

Estrin, Thelma. “Oral-History: Thelma Estrin.” Interview by Frederick Nebeker. 1992. IEEE Global History Network. Web. 28 June 2012.

Lin, Judy. "In Memoriam: Thelma Estrin, Computer Scientist and Advocate for Women in Science." UCLA, 20 Feb. 2014, newsroom.ucla.edu/in-memoriam--thelma-estrin--computer-scientist-and-advocate-for-women-in-science. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019.

Million-Weaver, Sam. "UW Women at 150: Computer Scientist Thelma Estrin." University of Wisconsin, 5 Feb. 2019, news.wisc.edu/uw-women-at-150-computer-scientist-thelma-estrin/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.

Nebeker, Frederik, ed. “New Applications of the Computer: Thelma Estrin and Biomedical Engineering.” Sparks of Genius: Portraits of Engineering Excellence. New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1994. E-book.