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One of the less-known significant woman in mathematics is Katherine Johnson, the women who put the man on the moon.
Early life
Katherine was Born on August 26 1918 in white sulphur springs in West Virginia, US to to Joylette Roberta (née Lowe) and Joshua McKinley Coleman. From such a young age she demonstrated brilliance and mastery of numbers. At the youthful age of 10, she started high school at Institute, West Virginia, and graduated at the age of 14. She afterwards enrolled in West Virginia State College and took every mathematics course the school offered. She graduated in 1937 with a degree in mathematics and French. After graduation, she had a teaching job in a black public school in Virginia. She was the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Career
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
In June 1953, Johnson began working National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)’s West Area Computing unit, a group of African American individuals who manually executed difficult mathematical calculations for the program’s engineers. The women, who were known as West computers, were essential for the success of the early US space program. NACA was incorporated into the newly founded National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
National aeronautics and space administration
At NASA, she was a member of the space task group. She co-authored a report with one of the group’s engineers regarding calculations for positioning a spacecraft into orbit. It was the first time a woman in her department obtained credit as an author of a research report. During her career, she both authored and co-authored 26 report papers. She also played an important role in NASA's mercury program. she calculated the path of freedom 7, which put the first U.S. astronauts in space. She was also part of a team that calculated where and when to launch the rocket for Apollo 11, which sent the first three men to the moon. later, she spent time on space shuttle programs and retired in 1986.
Awards
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015)
Silver Snoopy Award (2016)
NASA Group Achievement Award (2016)Congressional Gold Medal (2019)
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