Christine Darden
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Christine Darden | |
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![]() Christine Darden in the control room of NASA Langley's Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel in 1975. Credit: NASA | |
Born | September 10, 1942 |
Alma mater | Hampton University, 1962; George Washington University, 1985 |
Known for | studies in sonic booms |
Awards | Dr. A. T. Weathers Technical Achievement Award, 1985 |
Scientific career | |
Fields | aeronautical engineering |
Dr. Christine Darden (born September 10, 1942) is an American mathematician, data analyst, and aeronautical engineer who devoted her 40-year career in aerodynamics to researching sonic booms at NASA. Darden is one of several African-American scientists to be featured in the upcoming biographical drama, Hidden Figures.
Early life
Darden was born September 10, 1942 to Desma Cheney and Noah Horace Mann Sr. in Monroe, North Carolina. Her mother was an elementary school teacher and her father was an insurance agent, both of whom encouraged her education for future job security.[1] Darden finished her last two years of primary education at Allen High School, a boarding school in Asheville, North Carolina. She graduated as the class valedictorian in 1958, subsequently receiving a scholarship to attend Hampton University, then known as Hampton Institute. She graduated from Hampton with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1962. She also earned a teaching certification, spending a brief portion of her early career teaching high school mathematics.[1]
In 1963, she married Walter L. Darden Jr., a middle school science teacher. In 1965 she became a research assistant at Virginia State College, studying aerosol physics. At Virginia State, she also worked as a professor of mathematics and earned her M.S. in 1967.[2]
Career
In 1967 Darden was hired by NASA as a data analyst at Langley Research Center. At first her work was primarily performing calculations for engineers, but she later began writing computer programs for the engineers. In 1973 she was promoted to an aerospace engineer. During this time she continued her education, earning her Ph.D in 1983 from George Washington University. Her early findings resulted in a revolution of aerodynamics design demonstrating low-boom sonic effects in the 1960s and 1970s.[3][4]
"Human computers"
In 1989 she was appointed leader of the Sonic Boom Team, a subsidiary of the High Speed Research (HSR) Program. On the Sonic Boom Team she worked to decrease the negative effects of sonic booms such as noise pollution and the depletion of the ozone layer. Her team tested new wing and nose designs for supersonic aircraft. She also designed a computer program to simulate sonic booms.[2] The program was unceremoniously cancelled in February 1998, "without fan fare or press announcement."[5] A 1998 abstract published by Darden describes the program as focused on "technologies needed for the development of an environmentally friendly, economically viable High-Speed Civil Transport [HSCT]."[6]
Darden was one of several African-American women employed at the Langley Research Center known as the "West Area Computers."[7] The collective, once tasked with processing scores of collected flight test data, soon garnered a reputation as "human computers" essential to NASA's operation.
In March 2007, Darden retired from NASA as director of the Office of Strategic Communication and Education.[8] She is the author of more than 50 publications in the general field of aeronautical design, specializing in supersonic flow and flap design, as well as the prediction and minimization of sonic booms.
Book and film portrayal
Dr. Darden is featured in Hidden Figures, a nonfiction book by Margo Lee Shetterly. The book was published on September 6, 2016.
A film adaptation of same name is slated to be released in the United States on December 25, 2016. Darden will not be portrayed onscreen in the movie.[9]
Awards
In 1985 Darden was awarded the Dr. A. T. Weathers Technical Achievement Award from the National Technical Association. She also received three Certificates of Outstanding Performance from Langley Research Center in 1989, 1991, and 1992.[2]
References
- ^ a b "NASA - Standing on the Shoulders of a Computer". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
- ^ a b c Oakes, Elizabeth (2002). International Encyclopedia of Women Scientists. New York: Facts on File. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-8160-4381-7.
- ^ Darden, Christine (1977). "Sonic Boom Theory: Its Status in Prediction and Minimization". J. Aircraft. 129.
- ^ Darden, Christine (January 1, 1979). "Sonic-Boom Minimization With Nose-Bluntness Relaxation" (PDF). Technical Journal. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
- ^ Reynolds, Randolph S. (2004). "An Overview of the Demise of NASA's High Speed Research Program". Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research. 14 (1). Retrieved September 8, 2016.
- ^ Darden, Christine (September 11, 1998). "An Overview of NASA's HSR Program: Environmental Issues and Economic Concerns" (PDF). European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences.
- ^ ""When Computers Wore Skirts:" Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and the "West Computers" | American Institute of Physics". www.aip.org. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
- ^ "More Than 40 Take the Buyout, Retire". The Researcher News. April 4, 2007. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
- ^ Buckley, Cara (2016-09-05). "On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-09-09.