Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson was born on August 26th, 1918 in West Virginia, USA. She was extremely gifted in math, flying through course work at an early age, which allowed her to enter highschool at the age of 10. However, the United States was still largely segregated at this time, forcing her family to commute out of their city to give her an education. After graduating from highschool, Johnson went on to attend West Virginia State College, a historically African American college. At this time, she was mentored by several professors and doctorate holders due to her ability to solve difficult computations.
After graduating from college at 18, she became a teacher and then attended graduate school at West Virginia University, where she was the first African American female student ever. Later, Johnson got a job at NASA as a ‘human computer,’ solving math problems by hand using data from planes and aircrafts. Around this time, President John F. Kennedy had set the goal of sending a man to the moon, pressuring NASA into the Space Race.
Katherine Johnson was selected from the ‘pool’ of computers to assist the all-male research team on the flight and orbital patterns of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions. To learn more about the science behind the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, click here! Her mathematical prowess established herself within the team, which was supposed to be only temporary, but became a necessity. Johnson’s advanced expertise in analytical geometry greatly helped the team and led to the success of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions.
In 2015, President Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest achievement a civilian can obtain. In addition, several NASA buildings, the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility and the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, were named after Johnson due to her immense contributions to the agency. Johnson’s story is inspiring to many around the world, overcoming the tremendous obstacles of segregation, racism, and sexism and leading a successful career as a mathematician. Johnson died of natural causes in 2020 at the age of 101.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
If you are interested in learning more about Katherine Johnson, explore the resources below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wfrDhgUMGI - Johnson’s story is highlighted in the award-winning movie, “Hidden Figures.”
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/katherine-johnson-biography/
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/katherine-johnson-a-lifetime-of-stem/
