Katherine G. Johnson is an American physicist, space scientist, and mathematician who contributed to America’s aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA.
Johnson was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She showed an interest in mathematics from a young age, and was eager to go to school, wishing she could go with her older siblings. Johnson excelled at school, beginning her studies in the second grade. By the age of 10, Johnson was attending West Virginia State High School, where she was encouraged by her geometry teacher, Miss Turner. She graduated early at the age of 14, and at 15 began attending West Virginia State College. Johnson was unsure whether she should major in English, French or Mathematics but after a professor told her “If you don’t show up for my class, I will come and find you,” she followed her first love and chose mathematics. Dr. W.W. Schiefflin Claytor, the third African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in mathematics, created a special course in analytic geometry specifically for her. He told her that she would be an excellent research mathematician and ensured that she studied all of the mathematics classes that she would need to pursue this as a career. She received a Bachelor of Science degrees in mathematics and French in 1932.
Johnson stayed at West Virginia University where she enrolled in the graduate mathematics program. She was one of the first African Americans to enrol in the program. Due to family issues, she was kept from completing her required courses and turned to teaching in elementary and high schools in Virginia. She then left teaching to start a family, returning in 1952 when her husband fell ill. After a suggestion from a relative that she apply to work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (the predecessor to NASA) and a year later she began working as a research mathematician at the Langley Research Center, fulfilling her professor, Dr. Claytor’s earlier suggestion.
Johnson began working in the pool of women tasked with performing mathematical calculations in the Guidance and Control Branch. Johnson was dissatisfied with simply working out problems, and wanted to find out how and why, but no one before her had asked questions. She talked her way into attending briefings and meetings – unheard of for anyone in her position. NACA was beginning to work on space, and Johnson’s background in geometry lead to her working with the all-male flight research team. Her knowledge of analytic geometry meant that she soon became someone who was to be relied upon and proved herself an extremely valuable resource, simply ignoring the racial and gender barriers that would have held her back. She was the only woman at the time to ever be pulled from the computing pool to work on other programs.
In 1961, Johnson calculated the trajectory for the space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in Space. She also plotted plotted backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures. A year later, President John F. Kennedy charged the country to send a man to the moon and Johnson was part of team tasked with making this happen. The same year, NASA (as it was now known) used computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn’s orbit around Earth, Johnson was tasked with verifying the computers numbers. She then began working with computers, her ability and reputation for accuracy helped to establish confidence in the new technology.
In 1969, Johnson calculated the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon and
the 1970 Apollo 13’s flight, which was aborted. Due to Johnson’s work on backup procedures and charts the crew were able to safely return to Earth. Johnson also worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite, and on plans for a mission to Mars. She retired from the agency in 1986, after 33 years of service.
Johnson has received numerous awards and accolades, including the NASA Lunar Orbiter Award, five NASA Special Achievement Awards and the Apollo Group Achievement Award, which included one of only 300 flags flown to the moon on board the Apollo 11. She has also been awarded a Honorary Doctorate of Science from Old Dominion University and another from Capitol College and a Honorary Doctor of Laws, from SUNY Farmingdale. In 2015, it was announced that she would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Johnson was a pioneer in American space history, specifically in space science and computing. She paved the way for black women in neuroscience, psychics, and mathematics and space and continues to inspire and encourage students to pursue careers in STEM.