Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson was a NASA Mathematician. She was born on August 26, 1918. Katherine Johnson always liked math. Johnson was such a good student that she started high school at age ten and college at fifteen. After college she was employed by NASA, where she worked for many years. One of the challenges that Johnson faced was the segregation of her workplace. Another challenge was the fact that women were not allowed in board meetings and didn’t ask questions. Katherine Johnson changed this by inserting herself into the board meetings. She asked if it was illegal for her to be part of the meetings. The men said that it wasn’t illegal, so Johnson began to attend. As part of her work at NASA, Johnson plotted the trajectory for the 1961 mission that would set NASA up for the moon landing, which Katherine Johnson also worked on the calculations for. She received many awards from NASA when she worked there, and in 1997, Johnson was named Mathematician of the Year. Johnson was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. She died in February of 2020. Katherine Johnson was an important figure in African American history because she did great things that helped America land on the moon, despite many challenges.

SOURCES:
“Katherine Johnson.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 Feb. 2021, www.britannica.com/biography/Katherine-Johnson-mathematician.
Loff, Sarah. “Katherine Johnson Biography.” NASA, NASA, 22 Nov. 2016, www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography.
Wild, Flint. “Who Was Katherine Johnson?” NASA, NASA, 30 Dec. 2016, www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-katherine-johnson-k4.