Nancy R. Bedford received the B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1963 and the M.S. degree from The University of Houston, Houston, TX, in 1966, both in mathematics. Her area of concentration was linear algebra.
Between degrees, she worked as a Computer Programmer at North American Aviation, Los Angeles, CA. After her graduate degree, she worked at the Johnson Space Center on spacecraft simulations and error analysis. Since 1969, she has been a Research Scientist at Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT). She has been a Project Leader in the Environmental Sciences Group at ARL:UT for the past ten years and has focused on acoustic and seismic data collection, signal processing, and analysis related to surveillance applications. Much of her work has included data collection and analysis using ARL:UT's airborne acoustics measurements system onboard US Navy P-3 aircraft in Arctic and littoral areas.