Josephine Webb turned 104 years-old in 2022! When she attended Purdue in the 30’s she was the only female in her graduating class.

After she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1940 she went on to obtain two patents for oil circuit breaker contact design while working as a Design Engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corporation. As Director of Development for the Facsimile Development Laboratory at the Alden Products Company, Webb designed an eighteen-inch, full newspaper size fax machine with superior resolution for the mid-1940s. She eventually founded Webb Consulting Company with her husband, who was also an electrical engineer. The company worked for clients such as Boeing and the U.S. Bureau of Mines, specializing in electrical-electronic measurement instrumentation, communications applications, and photographic test devices.

Webb has been active in many professional organizations, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). Webb is considered a pioneer by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and is a Fellow of that organization. She turned 104 years-old in 2022 and resides in her hometown of Niagara Falls, NY.

Learn more from Purdue: From circuit breakers to quantum photonics: the impact of women in Purdue Electrical and Computer Engineering