{"id":2088,"date":"2020-02-28T21:26:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T21:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2020-03-04T20:11:24","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T20:11:24","slug":"katherine-johnsons-legacy-oral-histories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/science\/2020\/02\/28\/katherine-johnsons-legacy-oral-histories\/","title":{"rendered":"Katherine Johnson\u2019s Legacy\u00a0& Oral Histories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As recognized through the book and movie Hidden Figures<\/i>, Katherine Johnson<\/a><\/span> was one of the first African American women to work at NASA as a human computer. Born in 1918, she attended a two-room school in West Virginia. She excelled at school<\/a> and skipped ahead several grades. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in French and mathematics <\/a>at West Virginia State College (now called West Virginia State University) at the age of 18. She worked as a <\/span>school teacher<\/span> until moving on to work at Langley Research Center. In 1961, she performed the calculations for the first U.S. human flight into space, checked the computer\u2019s calculations for the first human orbit around the Earth, and continued her impeccable calculations through humankind\u2019s first visit to the moon. She worked for NASA until 1986 and received many awards, including the NASA Lunar Orbiter Award, NASA Special Achievement Awards, and Mathematician of the Year.  <\/span>In 2015, Johnson was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. <\/span>She died February 24, 2020 <\/a><\/span> at 101 years old, leaving a legacy that lives on as an inspiration to future scientists.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Watch Katherine Johnson\u2019s video oral histories:<\/span><\/p>\n