African-American physicist, space scientist, and mathematician Katherine G. Johnson was born AUgust 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Trained as a mathematician and physicist in West Virginia, she has worked on challenging problems of interplanetary trajectories, space navigation, and the orbits of spacecraft. Johnson has worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with the tracking teams of manned and unmanned orbital missions. She is also an aerospace technologist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.The spacecraft Johnson worked on include the Earth Resources Satellite, which has helped locate underground minerals and other earth resources. She also analyzed data gathered by tracking stations around the world during the lunar orbital missions, the Apollo moon missions. Later, she studied new navigation procedures to determine more practical ways to track manned and unmanned space missions. For her pioneering work in the field of navigation problems, she was the recipient of the Group Achievement Award presented to NASA's Lunar Spacecraft and Operations Team.
Johnson also is the recipient of the Group Achievement Award for NASA's Lunar Spacecraft and Operations. Johnson was given an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the State University of New York in Farmingdale in 1998, and was named West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 1999.
Reference:
Louisiana State University Libraries