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.” Lived to 101, mother of three, with six grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, among many other awards, including a NASA facility named after her.First woman in the NASA Flight Research Division to receive author credit on a scientific paper.One of the NASA/NACA “human computers”.Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician and physicist.
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