Have you ever wondered how astronauts were sent to the moon and back safely? Katherine Johnson, a female mathematician, was born on August 26, 1918 in West Virginia, and her work influenced NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and the discoveries of the universe.
At a young age, Katherine’s love of math and number theory was apparent, despite her father being a lumberman and her mother as a school teacher. Katherine’s intelligence wound her up in high school at the age of ten! In West Virginia University, she was selected to be one of three African American students to take a graduate program in 1939.
In 1953, she joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), now NASA, as one of the few African American mathematicians to solve problems, analyze data, and were a key part of the successful missions to the moon. Interestingly, the women were known as “computers”. Her calculations of placing spacecrafts, such as Freedom 7, Friendship 7, and Apollo 11, into orbit which helped open doors for NASA’s future missions and findings from space.
In 1986, Katherine retired and became a public figure, encouraging girls to work hard and never give up. Additionally, in 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the 44th president of the United States at the time, Barack Obama. “In her 33 years at NASA, Katherine was a pioneer who broke the barriers of race and gender, showing generations of young people that everyone can excel in math and science, and reach for the stars,” Obama said.
Katherine’s story inspires me to continue chasing my dreams, pushing through the gender gap and expanding the female math community.
