There Is No Cat

Laura and Ada

When I saw the call from my friend Suw for people to post about women in technology on Ada Lovelace Day, I didn’t have to look far. The woman in technology who most inspires me is my lovely wife, Laura Lombardo.

I love being able to tell people about what Laura does for a living. Say the magic words "my wife breaks in to computers for a living," and eyes get wide. My wife is a white hat hacker.

Her interest in technology probably manifested itself first in high school when she got her ham radio license. She’s maintained it all these years, although it’s been a long time since she was active (okay, she was never all that active). No doubt that had something to do with her being accepted into one of the toughest and most prestigious colleges in the country, Cooper Union. She received her Bachelors in Engineering (BEng) in Electrical Engineering.

After receiving her degree, she started work designing and implementing turnkey solutions for a piece of electrical test equipment. From there, she moved through a variety of jobs, including working as a C programmer and programming SAP solutions. That’s what she was doing when we started dating. From there, she moved into security, where she has performed a number of functions. For the last several years, she has been part of a Tiger Team, specializing in penetration testing for her company and outside clients. In the middle of all this, she managed to study for a masters degree via telelearning and received a M.S. in Telecommunications from Southern Methodist University without ever travelling to their campus in Dallas.

Laura has been on the net since the mid 1980s. We first met online in 1990, and started dating in 1995. I couldn’t be prouder of her, and I love having a partner I can discuss technology with.

Tags: laura technology engineer AdaLovelaceDay09

Posted at 6:28 AM