Katherine Johnson

Photo by NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

MATHEMATICIAN & HUMAN COMPUTER
Performed complex mathematic calculations for numerous NASA missions, including Freedom 7 (the first American in space), Friendship 7 (the first American to orbit Earth), and Apollo 11 (the first person on the moon)
Graduated from high school at 14 years old
Worked as a teacher after graduation, but left to raise her family
Hired by NASA in 1953
Faced racism and segregation inside NASA, required to sit at "colored" lunch tables and work in a separate building from white employees
As the ONLY woman working in the flight research division, she was initially excluded from department briefings; uninvited, she started attending anyway, eventually gaining acceptance among her coworkers
FIRST woman in the Flight Research Division to receive credit as an author of a research report; authored/co-authored 26 research reports
Astronaut John Glenn didn't trust the new NASA electronic computer that calculated his ship's trajectory for the Friendship 7 mission, and specifically requested that Johnson double-check the numbers before take off
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015
In 2017, NASA opened the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility

Bibliography: Edwards, Sue B. and Duchess Harris, JD, PHD. Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA. Minneapolis: Abdo Publishing, 2017. Print.
Shetterly, Margot Lee. Katherine Johnson Biography. https://www.nasa.gov

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