Katherine Johnson, 1918-2020

A mathematician and a human-computer, among the first African-American women who worked at NASA.

Born as Katherine Coleman in West Virginia. From an early age, Johnson demonstrated high mathematical abilities, and by the age of 18, she earned Bachelor’s Degrees in Mathematics and French. Before she got pregnant and left school, Johnson was the first African-American woman to enroll in a graduate math program at West Virginia University.
 
At age 35, she began to work as a human-computer at NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), with a unit of African-American women who manually performed mathematical calculations for the program’s engineers, a work that was essential to the success of the early US Space Program. At that time NACA was segregated, and Johnson and her colleagues had to work, eat, and use the restrooms that were separated by race. The segregation was banned After the organization was incorporated into NASA.
 
Katherine Johnson was a member of the Space Task Group and was the first woman to get credit for a paper that she co-authored with a group of engineers. Until her retirement in 1986 at the age of 70, Johnson worked as an aerospace technologist at NASA, helping to send John Glenn into orbit and the first men to the moon.
She died on February 24th, 2020, at the age of 101.
 

More Interesting Anecdotes:

• In the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ (2017) which follows Johnson and her unit’s work at NASA, Taraji P. Henson played Johnson’s character.
• In 2019 NASA West Virginia Facility Center was renamed after her.