BIOGRAPHY OF KATHERINE JOHNSON

An exceptional mathematician and African American pioneer, Katherine Johnson enabled astronauts like John Glenn to reach space.

Katherine Johnson, born in 1918 in the city of White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia, is an American mathematician and aerospace engineer.

Katherine Johnson grew up in a modest family where her parents encouraged her exceptional talent for mathematics from an early age. Despite segregation, her family moved to allow her to study, and she obtained her high school diploma at just 14 years old before entering West Virginia University.

Civil rights demonstration in the United States

After teaching and then interrupting her studies for her family, she restarted her career in 1952 by joining a government institution that recruited African American female mathematicians.

She then joined NASA where she distinguished herself with remarkably precise calculations, essential to the success of the early American space missions, notably that of John Glenn in 1962. Her rigor and intelligence finally earned her the recognition of her peers in a field that had been reserved for white men until then.

Katherine Johnson performing calculations at NASA

She then contributed to the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission in 1961 and to the Apollo 11 programs in 1969. In 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a symbol of her historical role in equality and space exploration.

Mercury capsule in low Earth orbit

In summary, Katherine Johnson was an African American mathematician whose calculations were essential to NASA's early space missions. Thanks to her talent and perseverance, she paved the way for women and minorities in the sciences.

Katherine Johnson in 1983

Other site about Katherine Johnson created as part of the BUT MMI de Montbéliard by Telmane Sarkissian :