Mathematician Spotlight: Katherine G Johnson

Broke Many Boundaries with Math
Katherine Johnson is celebrated by NASA as one its of their pioneering physicists and mathematicians. She played an integral role in calculating the routes of many space missions, including the one to the moon. In fact, John Glenn asked Katherine to check the computer’s calculations to make sure they were accurate.

As a black woman in the South born in the early 1900’s, Katherine had many barriers to getting a quality math education and advancing in her career. She never let any of those roadblocks stop her. In her town in West Virginia, there were no schools teaching black children beyond 8th grade, so her father moved her family 125 miles away so she and her siblings could go to high school. Katherine continued her education in high school and college, taking the hardest math classes available.

At Mathnasium of Littleton we salute Katherine Johnson as a trailblazer in math, in space and in smashing through racial and gender social barriers. Recently, she was given one of the highest civilian honors available, The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

If you would like to learn more about her inspiring life story, check out these websites.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/katherine-johnson-the-girl-who-loved-to-count
https://blackamericaweb.com/2014/03/05/little-known-black-history-fact-katherine-g-johnson/  
https://www.makers.com/katherine-g-johnson
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/11/25/honoring-nasas-katherine-johnson-stem-pioneer