Jump to content

Katherine Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 216.159.88.19 (talk) at 16:57, 3 May 2017 (→Legacy and honors: She's also African American). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other people named Catherine Johnson, see Catherine Johnson (disambiguation).

Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson in 2008
Born
Katherine Coleman

(1918-08-26) August 26, 1918 (age 106)
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWest Virginia State University,
West Virginia University
Occupation(s)Physicist, Mathematician
Employer(s)NACA, NASA
Known forCalculating the trajectories for many NASA missions

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson (born August 26, 1918) is an African-American physicist and mathematician who made contributions to the United States' aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Known for accuracy in computerized celestial navigation, she conducted technical work at NASA that spanned decades. During this time, she calculated the trajectories, launch windows, and emergency back-up return paths for many flights from Project Mercury, including the early NASA missions of John Glenn and Alan Shepard, and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, through the Space Shuttle program.[1][2][3] Her calculations were critical to the success of these missions.[1] Johnson also did calculations for plans for a mission to Mars.

In 2015, Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was included in the BBC series 100 Women the following year.

Early life

Johnson was born Katherine Coleman in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, the daughter of Joshua and Joylette Coleman.[4][5] She was the youngest of four children.[6] Her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman and worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Her mother was a former teacher.[4][7]

Johnson showed a talent for math from an early age. Because Greenbrier County did not offer public schooling for African-American students past the eighth grade, the Coleman parents arranged for their children to attend high school in Institute, West Virginia. This school was on the campus of West Virginia State College.[8] Johnson was admitted when she was only 10 years old.[9] The family split their time between Institute during the school year and White Sulphur Springs in the summer.

Johnson graduated from high school at 14 and entered West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University), a historically black college.[10] As a student, Johnson took every math course offered by the college. Multiple professors took Katherine under their wings, including chemist and mathematician Angie Turner King, who had mentored the girl throughout high school, and W.W. Schiefflin Claytor, the third African American to receive a PhD in math. Claytor added new math courses just for Katherine. She graduated summa cum laude in 1937, with degrees in Mathematics and French, at age 18.[5][7][11][12][13] She took on a teaching job at a black public school in Virginia.[10]

In 1939, after marrying her first husband, James Goble, Johnson left her teaching job and enrolled in a graduate math program, but quit after one year, having become pregnant and choosing to focus on her family.[10] At the time of her entry, she was the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. Through WVSC's president, Dr. John W. Davis, she became one of three African-American students,[10] and the only female, selected to integrate the graduate school after the United States Supreme Court ruling Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938). The court had ruled that states that provided public higher education to white students also had to provide it to black students, to be satisfied either by establishing black colleges and universities or by admitting black students to previously white-only universities.[7][14]

Career

Johnson at NASA in 1966

Johnson decided on a career as a research mathematician, although this was a difficult field for African Americans and women to enter. The first jobs she found were in teaching. It was not until 1952, at a family gathering, that a relative mentioned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was hiring mathematicians.[10] (It was superseded by the agency NASA in 1958.) At the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, based in Hampton, Virginia near Langley Field, NACA hired African-American mathematicians as well as whites for their Guidance and Navigation Department. Johnson was offered a job in 1953. She accepted and became part of the early NASA team.

According to an oral history archived by the National Visionary Leadership Project:

At first she [Johnson] worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. Katherine has referred to the women in the pool as virtual "computers who wore skirts." Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. Then one day, Katherine (and a colleague) were temporarily assigned to help the all-male flight research team. Katherine's knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that, "they forgot to return me to the pool." While the racial and gender barriers were always there, Katherine says she ignored them. Katherine was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings (where no women had gone before). She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged.[15]

From 1953 through 1958, Johnson worked as a "computer,"[16] analyzing topics such as gust alleviation for aircraft. Originally assigned to the West Area Computers section supervised by mathematician Dorothy Vaughan, Johnson was reassigned to the Guidance and Control Division of Langley's Flight Research Division. It was staffed by white male engineers.[17] In keeping with state racial segregation laws, and federal workplace segregation introduced under President Woodrow Wilson in the early 20th century, Johnson and the other African-American women in the computing pool were required to work, eat, and use restrooms that were separate from those of their white peers. Their office was labeled as "Colored Computers." In an interview with WHRO-TV, Johnson stated that she "didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job ... and play bridge at lunch." She added, "I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it."[18]

NACA disbanded the colored computing pool in 1958 when it was superseded by NASA, which adopted digital computers. The installation was desegregated.[17] Society's discrimination against women had not yet ended, however. Johnson recalled that era as follows.

"We needed to be assertive as women in those days—assertive and aggressive—and the degree to which we had to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be. In the early days of NASA women were not allowed to put their names on the reports—no woman in my division had had her name on a report. I was working with Ted Skopinski and he wanted to leave and go to Houston ... but Henry Pearson, our supervisor—he was not a fan of women—kept pushing him to finish the report we were working on. Finally, Ted told him, "Katherine should finish the report, she's done most of the work anyway." So Ted left Pearson with no choice; I finished the report and my name went on it, and that was the first time a woman in our division had her name on something."[19]

From 1958 until her retirement in 1986, Johnson worked as an aerospace technologist, moving during her career to the Spacecraft Controls Branch. She calculated the trajectory for the May 5, 1961 space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space.[1] She also calculated the launch window for his 1961 Mercury mission.[20] She plotted backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures.[4] When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit around Earth, officials called on Johnson to verify the computer's numbers; Glenn had asked for her specifically and had refused to fly unless Johnson verified the calculations.[1][21][22] Biography.com states these were "far more difficult calculations, to account for the gravitational pulls of celestial bodies."[2] Author Margot Lee Shetterly stated, "So the astronaut who became a hero, looked to this black woman in the still-segregated South at the time as one of the key parts of making sure his mission would be a success." She added that, in a time where computing was "women's work" and engineering was left to men, "it really does have to do with us over the course of time sort of not valuing that work that was done by women, however necessary, as much as we might. And it has taken history to get a perspective on that."[23]

Johnson later worked directly with digital computers. Her ability and reputation for accuracy helped to establish confidence in the new technology.[2] In 1961, Johnson's work helped to ensure that Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 Mercury capsule would be quickly found after landing, using the accurate trajectory that had been established.[24]

Johnson also helped to calculate the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon.[1][2] During the moon landing, Johnson was at a meeting in the Pocono Mountains. She and a few others crowded around a small television screen watching the first steps on the moon. In 1970, Johnson worked on the Apollo 13 moon mission. When the mission was aborted, her work on backup procedures and charts helped set a safe path for the crew's return to Earth,[2] creating a one-star observation system that would allow astronauts to determine their location with accuracy. In a 2010 interview, Johnson recalled, "Everybody was concerned about them getting there. We were concerned about them getting back."[25] Later in her career, Johnson worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite,[1][2] and on plans for a mission to Mars.[26]

Personal life

In 1939, Katherine (then Coleman) married James Francis Goble. They had three daughters: Constance, Joylette, and Katherine. In 1953, she and James moved their family to Newport News to pursue her new job opportunity. In 1956, James Goble died of an inoperable brain tumor.

In 1959, the then-Katherine Goble remarried, to James A. Johnson, who had been a Second Lieutenant in the Army and was a veteran of the Korean War.[27]

Katherine Johnson continued her career at NASA. She sang in the choir of Carver Presbyterian Church for fifty years. She has been a member since college of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the first sorority established by and for African-American women. Johnson and her husband, who have six grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren, live in Hampton, Virginia. She continues to encourage her grandchildren and students to pursue careers in science and technology.[28]

Legacy and honors

Being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015

Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers.[15][29] Her social influence as a pioneer in space science and computing is demonstrated by the honors she has received and her status as a role model for a life in science.[30][29][31][32][33][34] Since 1979 (before she retired from NASA), Johnson has been listed among African Americans in science and technology.[35][36] Johnson was named West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 1999. President Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of 17 Americans so honored on November 24, 2015. She was cited as a pioneering example of African-American women in STEM.[37]

On May 5, 2016, a new 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) building was named Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility and formally dedicated at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Johnson attended this event which marked the 55th anniversary of astronaut Alan Shepard's historic rocket launch and splashdown, a success Johnson helped achieve.[38] At the ceremony, Deputy Director Lewin said this about Johnson: "Millions of people around the world watched Shepard's flight, but what they didn't know at the time was that the calculations that got him into space and safely home were done by today's guest of honor, Katherine Johnson".[39] During the event, Johnson also received a Silver Snoopy award; often called the astronaut's award, NASA stated it is given to those "who have made outstanding contributions to flight safety and mission success."[40]

In 2016, Johnson was included in the list of "BBC 100 Women," BBC's list of 100 influential women worldwide.[41] NASA stated, "Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country's journey into space."[1]

Johnson has been portrayed in the media. In a 2016 episode of the NBC series Timeless, titled "Space Race," the mathematician is portrayed by Nadine Ellis.[42] The highly-acclaimed December 2016 film Hidden Figures, based on the non-fiction book of the same title by Margot Lee Shetterly, follows Johnson and other female African-American mathematicians (Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan) who worked at NASA. Taraji P. Henson plays Johnson in the film.[22] Johnson appeared alongside Henson at the 89th Academy Awards.[43] In an earlier interview, Johnson offered the following comment about the movie: "It was well-done. The three leading ladies did an excellent job portraying us."[44]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Smith, Yvette (November 24, 2015). "Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Loved to Count". NASA. Retrieved February 12, 2016. Her calculations proved as critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program, as they did to those first steps on the country's journey into space.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Katherine G. Johnson Biography". Biography.com. October 10, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  3. ^ Shetterly, Margot Lee (December 1, 2016). "Katherine Johnson Biography". NASA. NASA. Retrieved March 2, 2017. When asked to name her greatest contribution to space exploration, Katherine Johnson talks about the calculations that helped synch Project Apollo's Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module.
  4. ^ a b c "Katherine Johnson – Oral History". National Visionary Leadership Project. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Gale, Thomas (2005). "Johnson, Katherine Coleman Goble". Encyclopedia.com. Cengage Learning. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
  6. ^ Shetterly, Morgot Lee (December 1, 2016). "The Woman the Mercury Astronauts Couldn't Do Without". Nautilus (science magazine). Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Gutman, David (December 26, 2015). "West Virginian of the Year: Katherine G. Johnson". Charleston Gazette-Mail. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  8. ^ Shetterly, Margot Lee (December 1, 2016). "From Hidden to Modern Figures - Katherine Johnson Biography". NASA. NASA. Retrieved March 1, 2017. By thirteen, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. .... enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school's math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in Mathematics. Katherine graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.
  9. ^ Editor Yvette Smith (November 24, 2015). "Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Loved to Count". NASA. NASA. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, for by the time she was 10 years old, she was a high school freshman--a truly amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those who could indulge in that luxury. Katherine skipped several grades to graduate from high school at 14 and from college at 18. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  10. ^ a b c d e Loff, Sarah (November 22, 2016). "Katherine Johnson Biography". NASA. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  11. ^ "Katherine G. Johnson - Presidential Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters". West Virginia University. WVU. 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Katherine Johnson graduated from high school at age 14 and from college at 18.
  12. ^ Editor Yvette Smith (November 24, 2015). "Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Loved to Count". NASA. NASA. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, for by the time she was 10 years old, she was a high school freshman--a truly amazing feat in an era when school for African-Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those could indulge in that luxury. Katherine skipped though grades to graduate from high school at 14, from college at 18. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  13. ^ Gutman, David (November 16, 2015). "WV native, NASA mathematician to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom". WV Gazette Mail: Charleston Gazette-Mail. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  14. ^ "Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada 305 U.S. 337 (1938)". Justia US Supreme Court. 1938. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  15. ^ a b c d e f "Oral History Archive: Katherine Johnson". National Visionary Leadership Project. 2005. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  16. ^ Hodges, Jim (August 26, 2008). "She Was a Computer When Computers Wore Skirts". Langley Research Center. NASA. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
  17. ^ a b Buckley, Cara (September 5, 2016). "On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  18. ^ "KATHERINE JOHNSON INTERVIEW: NASA'S HUMAN COMPUTER". HistoryvsHollywood.com. CTF Media. 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2017. Citation:http://www.historyvshollywood.com/video/katherine-johnson-interview-nasa/
  19. ^ "Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson". School of Mathematics & Statistics University of St Andrews, UK. School of Mathematics & Statistics University of St Andrews, UK. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Excerpt from W. Warren, Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, in Black Women Scientists in the United States (Indiana University Press, 1999), 140-147.
  20. ^ Whitney, AK (2015). "The Black Female Mathematicians Who Sent Astronauts to Space". Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  21. ^ "Makers Profile: Katherine G. Johnson". Makers. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  22. ^ a b Sloat, Sarah (August 15, 2016). "Hidden Figures' Gives NASA Mathematicians Long Overdue Movie". Inverse.com. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  23. ^ "'Hidden Figures': How Black Women Did The Math That Put Men On The Moon". NPR. NPR. September 25, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Heard on All Things Considered
  24. ^ Bartels, Meghan (August 22, 2016). "The unbelievable life of the forgotten genius who turned Americans' space dreams into reality". Business Insider. Business Insider Inc. Retrieved March 2, 2017. In 1961, on the strength of Johnson's work, Alan Shepherd became the first American to go into space. Johnson calculated his trajectory, the path he would take from launch to landing. If she was wrong, the best case scenario was that NASA wouldn't have known where to pick him up.
  25. ^ Bartels, Meghan (August 22, 2016). "The unbelievable life of the forgotten genius who turned Americans' space dreams into reality". Business Insider. Business Insider Inc. Retrieved March 2, 2017. There were an incredible number of factors at play: Earth's rotation, the moon's location, when you took off, when you reached the moon. "It was intricate but it was possible," she said. The mission went according to plan. Her numbers weren't just there to make sure everything went right — she also stepped in when something went wrong. In 1970, Apollo 13, which had been bound for the moon, was stymied by the explosions of two oxygen tanks. Johnson was one of the mathematicians who scrambled to calculate a safe path back to Earth for the stranded astronauts. That work became the basis of a system that only requires one star observation matched with an onboard star chart for astronauts to pinpoint their location.
  26. ^ Guglielmi, Jodi (August 26, 2016). "Katherine Johnson, Legendary Mathematician and Inspiration for the Upcoming Film Hidden Figures, Turns 98". People. Retrieved January 15, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ "Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson". School of Mathematics & Statistics University of St Andrews, UK. School of Mathematics & Statistics University of St Andrews, UK. Retrieved March 1, 2017. Excerpt from W. Warren, Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, in Black Women Scientists in the United States (Indiana University Press, 1999), 140-147.
  28. ^ "The Untold History of Women in Science and Technology". The White House. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  29. ^ a b "Human computers: Katherine G. Johnson". NASA History. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  30. ^ "'Mop Top' the 'Hip Hop' Scientist Celebrates African-Americans in the Sciences: Katherine G. Johnson", 2003
  31. ^ “Black history... Katherine G Johnson (1918 – retired)”, UK-based Planet Science
  32. ^ she is a black person with many perfesions“Katherine G. Johnson: Physicist, Space Scientist, Mathematician”, Oracle Think Quest Education Foundation Library
  33. ^ Vivian Ovelton Sammons, Blacks In Science And Medicine, 1989 (Taylor & Francis), ISBN 0-89116-665-3
  34. ^ "Katherine Johnson, Computer and Pioneer", December 23, 2009, Katysblog.
  35. ^ “BLACK CONTRIBUTORS TO SCIENCE AND ENERGY TECHNOLOGY” 1979, anonymous, U.S. Department Of Energy U.S. Government Printing Office (ERIC electronic document)
  36. ^ “BLACK CONTRIBUTORS TO SCIENCE AND ENERGY TECHNOLOGY” 1979, anonymous, U.S. Department Of Energy U.S. Government Printing Office (manually scanned images)
  37. ^ Ford, Knatokie (November 30, 2015). "Honoring NASA's Katherine Johnson, STEM Pioneer". Blog, The White House. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  38. ^ Northon, Karen (April 28, 2016). "NASA Dedicates Facility to Mathematician, Presidential Medal Winner". Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  39. ^ "Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson". School of Mathematics & Statistics University of St Andrews, UK. School of Mathematics & Statistics University of St Andrews, UK. 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2017. S. Lewin, NASA Facility Dedicated to Mathematician Katherine Johnson, space.com (5 May 2016).
  40. ^ "Katherine Johnson at NASA Langley Research Center". NASA History. NASA. August 26, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2017. On May 5, 2016, she returned to NASA Langley, on the 55th anniversary of Shepard's historic flight, to attend a ceremony where a $30 million, 40,000-square-foot Computational Research Facility was named in her honor. As part of the event, Johnson also received a Silver Snoopy award from Leland Melvin, an astronaut and former NASA associate administrator for education. Often called the astronaut's award, the Silver Snoopy goes to people who have made outstanding contributions to flight safety and mission success.
  41. ^ 2016, BBC. Retrieved November 24, 2016.
  42. ^ Shoemaker, Allison (November 29, 2016). "Timeless needs to ditch the formula". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  43. ^ Taylor Maple (February 26, 2017). "Katherine Johnson, real-life subject of 'Hidden Figures' receives standing ovation at Oscars". Retrieved February 26, 2017.
  44. ^ Khan, Amina (February 26, 2017). "Q&A: Our interview with Katherine G. Johnson, the real-life mathematician who inspired 'Hidden Figures'". LA Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  45. ^ "Katherine G. Johnson: Biography". The History Makers. February 6, 2012. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  46. ^ a b Katherine Johnson biography, African-American Registry.
  47. ^ Live, Learn, Pursue Passion – NASA Mathematician preps Class of 2006 to find its mission, Capitol Chronicle, Summer 2006, Capitol College (12 pages, PDF format)
  48. ^ "Katherine Johnson". National Center for Women & Information Technology. 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
  49. ^ Phil Helsel – "Obama honoring Spielberg, Streisand and more with medal of freedom," NBC News, November 24, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2015
  50. ^ "Katherine Johnson at NASA Langley Research Center". NASA. September 22, 2016. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  51. ^ "Katherine Johnson to receive the ASP's new Arthur B.C. Walker II Award". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 2016. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  52. ^ "Katherine G. Johnson Presidential Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters". West Virginia University. September 12, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2017.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Katherine Johnson.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katherine_Johnson&oldid=778520482"