Pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who calculated the flight path for America’s first space mission and the first moon landing among other mathematical achievements, has died today, February 24, 2020, at 101. Her accomplishments, and those of the largely unrecognized other Black women mathematicians in the early days of NASA, were profiled in Margot Lee Shetterly’s bestselling book, Hidden Figures. The book went on to be adapted into a film with Taraji P. Henson starring as Johnson, the film’s central figure.
No longer a Hidden Figure, her bravery and commitment to excellence leaves an eternal legacy for us all: https://t.co/1D6xzQNWrg pic.twitter.com/pvUvoRhuxp — NASA (@NASA) February 24, 2020 In 2015, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, who said: “In her 33 years at NASA, Katherine was a pioneer who broke the barriers of race and gender, showing generations of young people that everyone can excel in math and science, and reach for the stars.” Two years later, NASA dedicated a building in her honor, the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Hidden Figures has since been adapted into a Hidden Figures Young Readers’ Edition, illustrated edition, and picture book Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race. For more riveting reads on math and science:
One Small Step, One Giant Leap: 16 Must-Read Space Books Sum Great Math Books for Your Reading Pleasure
