Katherine johnson nasa math6/9/2023 ![]() Katherine didn't just check the math, her math was the basis for spaceflights. Katherine would be key to NASA and the first US Space Flights! NASA then was specifically looking for African American women who would check the math and do calculations for engineers. But Katherine in 1953 really wanted to go back to work, and went to join the early iteration of NASA (then called NACA). Katherine became a teacher, one of the few career options for women then. She was one of the first African Americans to enroll, but could not complete due to family obligations. Graduating Summa Cum Laude (the highest honor) with two degrees in Math and French, Katherine enrolled in West Virginia University to earn an graduate degree in Math. In College, her favorite professor created a special course in Analytic Geometry just for her. Her parents moved her family 125 miles away from home in search of the education they knew she and her siblings needed, and Katherine lived up to that dream. A natural math genius and excellent student, Katherine started school in the 2nd grade (not kindergarten), and graduated High School at 14 years of age. After being blocked from entering the all-male meeting, she still insisted on attending.Katherine Johnson, born Augin White Sulphur Springs West Virginia, helped the United States go to the moon. At the time, only men were allowed to write the papers and discuss their findings. Johnson recalled the obstacles of being one of the first women to attend an editorial meeting at NASA. You couldn't move like that in a girdle." The women were very different in the '60s, particularly the black women and the clothes were different, the girdles. I'm very animated when I speak, Katherine is not. Taraji is very, you know, I'm rambunctious. In an interview with W magazine, Henson described playing her real-life counterpart, "Katherine, very different woman from a very different time where women had no rights, basically, so it was exhausting in another way, because I am a lot in life. Johnson's daughters, Joylette Goble Hylick and Katherine Goble Moore, claim she has watched the Theodore Melfi film at least three times. ![]() ![]() Johnson enjoyed watching her portrayal by Empire actress Taraji P. President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to NASA mathematician and physicist Katherine Johnson at the White House in Washington, DC, on NovemNICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed…anything that could be counted, I did." By the age of 10, Johnson was already taking classes in high school.Ībout her love for counting, Johnson told NASA, "I counted everything. From the beginning of her studies, Johnson moved ahead of her classmates and attending into advanced classes. Johnson, who also played big part in the first moon landing, had such a genuine love for mathematics. During a time of Jim Crow segregation, during a time when women frequently weren't even allowed to have credit cards in their own names, here were these women-large numbers of women-doing very high-level mathematical work at one of the highest scientific institutions in the world at that time." Hidden Figures follows Johnson as she endured racial inequality while double-checking the calculations for astronaut John Glenn's successful orbit into space.ĭescribing the importance of Johnson's contributions, author Margot Lee Shetterly told Space, "This is the story of broad success of women overall, and African American women specifically, in a job category that it's simply assumed where they don't exist. Today, we celebrate her 101 years of life and honor her legacy of excellence that broke down racial and social barriers: /dGiGmEVvAW- NASA February 24, 2020 We're saddened by the passing of celebrated #HiddenFigures mathematician Katherine Johnson.
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