If the calculations were off by even just a little bit, lives would be at risk. And, like anything new, the computers calculations were viewed with no small measure of caution. She went on to help author 25 additional papers. She was, as a result, listed as co-author. She pioneered the way by being the first when engineer Ted Skopinski admitted that she’d done most of the work.
Before her, no one in her group had ever been listed as author on a scientific paper. She had her work cut out for her due to the prejudices against women in STEM fields. And later to the astronauts who depended on her consistent accuracy. She became invaluable to the group of engineers she worked alongside. When the Space Race to put a man on the moon took off, NACA became NASA. In the early 1950s, she began working at Langley in the computing section of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Then she graduated that same college, with highest honors, at 18.įollowing in her mother’s footsteps, Katherine also became a teacher. Katherine enrolled when she was only 10, and graduated high school when she was 14. The college offered high school on campus. Her parents moved the family near West Virginia State College. Katherine and her siblings were encouraged to make more of themselves. Her mother was a teacher, and her family was supportive of continuing education. Public schools often did not allow students of color to attend beyond eighth grade.īut, from the time she was young, Katherine loved learning, especially mathematics. And this limitation extended to education, as well. She grew up in a time when people of color, especially women, were limited in their careers. Katherine was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, in 1918. And she had a mild-mannered assertiveness which helped her pioneer a pathway that future female scientists would follow.
She was born with a thirst for knowledge. But Katherine was more than a mathematician who was great at geometry. Katherine Johnson, along with other smart women, worked in this capacity. They used hand tools and their intelligence to solve complicated equations. These smart women were not well known at the time, but were invaluable to the space program. Long before computers with keyboards and monitors, there were human ‘computers’ at NASA. “If you attack the problem right, you’ll get the answer.” “You lose your curiosity when you stop learning.”
0 kommentar(er)
