About science and women

1. Katherine Johnson

2. Biography
• Date of Birth: August 26, 1918
• Hometown: White Sulphur Springs, WV
• Education: B.S., Mathematics and French, West Virginia State College, 1937
• Hired by NASA: June 1953
• Retired from NASA: 1986
• Actress Playing Role in Hidden Figures: Taraji P. Henson
Being handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s
graduate schools is something that many people would consider one of their life’s
most notable moments, but it’s just one of several breakthroughs that have marked
Katherine Johnson’s long and remarkable life. Born in White Sulphur Springs, West
Virginia in 1918, Katherine Johnson’s intense curiosity and brilliance with numbers
vaulted her ahead several grades in school. By thirteen, she was attending the high
school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At eighteen, she
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.

3. Personal Life
• In 1939 she married James Francis Goble with whom he had three
daughters: Constance, Joylette and Katherine.
• In 1956 James Goble died of an inoperable brain tumor. In 1959 he
married the Lieutenant Colonel James A. Johnson continued his career at
NASA.
• She participated in the same Carver presviteriana church choir for 50 years
and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

4. Career
• Not content with teaching, Coleman Goble Johnson decided to make a
career in mathematics. At a family reunion, a relative mentioned that the
NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), then developed at
NASA, was offering jobs. In particular, they were looking for African-
American women to the Department of guidance and navigation. In 1953,
he was offered a position to Johnson who accepted immediately.

5. Awards
 1967, NASA Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award
– for pioneering work in the field of navigation problems supporting the
five spacecraft that orbited
and mapped the moon in preparation for the Apollo program
 1967, Apollo Group Achievement Award – this award included one
of only 300 flags flown to the moon on board the Apollo 11
 1971, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986: NASA Langley Research Center
Special Achievement award
 1998, Honorary Doctor of Laws, from SUNY Farmingdale
 1999, West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year
 2006, Honorary Doctor of Science by the Capitol College, Laurel, Maryland 2010, Honorary
Doctorate of Science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
 2014, De Pizan Honor from National Women's History Museum.
 2015, NCWIT Pioneer in Tech Award 2015, Presidential Medal of Freedom2016, Silver Snoopy
award from Leland Melvin
 2016, Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Arthur B.C. Walker II Award
 2016, Presidential Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from West Virginia University,
Morgantown, West Virginia

6. Legacy and Honors
Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers. Her social influence as a pioneer in
space science and computing is demonstratedby the honors she was recieved
and her status as a role model for a life in science. Since 1979 (before she
retired from NASA), Johnson has been listed among African Americans in
science and tecnology in 2016, Johnson was included in the list of 100
influential women worlwide.
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.”
President Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidental 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.

7. Trabajo realizado por: Carmen García, Esperanza García, Laura
Jimenez, Autum Rideout