Former NASA research mathematician (human ‘computer’) and African-American physicist who helped NASA put an astronaut into Earth orbit prior to the advent of the computer; later, NASA used her mathematics to place a man on the Moon. The West Virginia native joined NASA at the age of 34; she ultimately calculated the trajectories, launch windows, and emergency back-up return paths for space flights, including those of John Glenn and Alan Shepard’s in the Mercury project, Apollo 11’s landing on the Moon, and many space shuttle flights. On 24 November 2015 US president Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. In 2016 she appeared in the British Broadcasting Corporation series 100 Women, and her life was portrayed in the 20th Century Fox film Hidden Figures that same year.

NASA ‘human computer’ Katherine Johnson sits at her desk with a globe, or ‘Celestial Training Device’.

Credit: NASA