Category Archives: News & Reviews

My husband John and I just spent most of the afternoon creating a new  Wikipedia entry about Computer Science Pioneer Katherine Johnson (based on my 23 December 2009 blog entry). My daughter Jessica also advised on the project. Even though we started out with all of the information in HTML, we ended up reworking the text and references to fit into Wikipedia’s format and style. My initial Wikipedia discussion comment indicated that the blog entry came first, yet within seconds of publication, an automatic searchbot tagged the article
as a near-duplication of my original blog entry. I went left a second comment acknowledging the source.

This is my first original Wikipedia entry. I started thinking about what I could add to Wikipedia after reading Clay Shirky’s excellent 2008 book Here Comes Everybody earlier this year. Jessica is reading my copy of Shirky’s book now and adding her margin comments to mine.
I am curious to see what kind of comments are made on the Katherine Johnson Wikipedia entry and whether any valuable information is added.

This work is in the Public
Domain

A benefit of creating the Famous Women in Computer Science list is learning new stories of amazing women who have been recommended by my generous readers. Notable even in this remarkably accomplished group is Katherine Johnson. Ms Johnson was brought to my attention by Kristin Yvonne Rozier, a Research Computer Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center here in the San Francisco Bay Area. When I first met Kristin, she worked at NASA Langley Research Center, where Katherine Johnson had also worked.

About Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson made significant contributions to America’s aeronautics and space advances and she was a pioneer in advancing our society. Her accomplishments contributed to the success of our nation’s early space program and in the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Her courage and perseverance helped to lead the way for both women and African-Americans in technical fields.

Education and Early Work

Katherine Coleman was born in 1918 in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. Her mother, Joylette, had been a teacher and her father, Joshua, was a farmer who also worked as a janitor. Since local schools only offered classes to African-Americans through the eighth grade, her father drove the children to a school 125 miles away. Katherine graduated from high school at 14, from college at 18. She taught in elementary and high schools in West Virginia and Virginia for 17 years. Then, Katherine Johnson went to work as a “computer” for the Langley Research Center, part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). NACA later became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Katherine Johnson at NASA

According to her oral history archived by the National Visionary Leadership Project:

“…in June 1953, Katherine was contracted as a research mathematician at the Langley Research Center… At first she worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. Katherine has referred to the women in the pool as virtual `computers who wore skirts.’ Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. Then one day, Katherine (and a colleague) were temporarily assigned to help the all-male flight research team. Katherine’s knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that,’they forgot to return me to the pool.’ While the racial and gender barriers were always there, Katherine says she ignored them. Katherine was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings (where no women had gone before.) She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged.”

At NASA, Katherine Johnson started work in the all-male Flight Mechanics Branch and later moved to the Spacecraft Controls Branch. She calculated the trajectory for the space flight of Alan Shepard, the first American in space, in 1959 and the launch window for his 1961 Mercury mission. She plotted backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures. In 1962, when NASA used computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn’s orbit around Earth, officials called on her to verify the computer’s numbers. Ms. Johnson later worked directly with real computers. Her ability and reputation for accuracy helped to establish confidence in the new technology. She calculated the trajectory for the
1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. Later in her career, she worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite, and on plans for a mission to Mars.

Katherine Johnson’s Legacy

In total, Katherine Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers, of which only one can now be found. The practice in 1960 would have been not to list the female Computers as formal co-authors, so that she was listed as an author is significant.

Katherine Johnson’s social impact as a pioneer in space science and computing may be seen both from the honors she has received and the number of times her story is presented as a role model. Since 1979 (before she retired from NASA), Katherine Johnson’s biography has had an honored place in lists of African-Americans in Science and Technology. In an era when race and gender held back many, Katherine Johnson’s courage, perseverance, and talent helped her to succeed. The continuing need for historical success models for both women and African-Americans makes Katherine Johnson particularly important.

Katherine Johnson and Computer Science

Much of Katherine Johnson’s life predates the academic discipline now called Computer Science; however, she has two strong ties to the field. First, as a “Computer” scientist she is one of few people to carry this historical title which refers to when humans did what computers do now. It’s the same work, just less automated back then. Second, she was one of the earliest people in the area now called verification of avionics software systems. In 1962, people were still used to check the results found by NASA’s mechanical computers: to verify that the trajectories were correctly computed. When Katherine Johnson worked with the flight research team, she probably influenced the ways in which early computers were initially integrated into avionics systems by determining how they could be most useful, and that they were reliable enough. Like Katherine Johnson, many of those who work today in avionics software verification have math degrees because of the nature of the tools used. NASA now calls workers in that area Research Computer Scientists. Work at NASA is interdisciplinary, so it is hard to classify people into traditional categories; however, avionics hardware and software verification are unquestionably part of what we now call Computer Science.

Curriculum Vitae

Katherine Johnson

Experience Summary

• 1953-1986 NASA Langley Research Center, Virginia
• 1953-1958 Computer (mathematician), Langley Research Center with
  the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
• 1958-1986, Aerospace Technologist, NASA
• 1952-1953 Substitute math teacher for Newport News, VA, public schools
• 1936-1952 Teacher in rural Virginia and West Virginia high schools and elementary
  schools

Education

• 1940 West Virginia University graduate program in Math
• 1937 West Virginia State University (West Virginia State College),
  BS in Mathematics and French, summa cum laude
• 1932 West Virginia State High School

Awards

• 2006, Honorary Doctor of Science by the Capitol College of Laurel Maryland
• 1999, West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year
• 1988, Honorary Doctor of Laws, from SUNY Farmingdale
• 1986, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
• 1985, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
• 1984, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
• 1980, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
• 1971, NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award
• 1967, Apollo Group Achievement Award – this award included one of only 300 flags flown to the moon on-board the Apollo 11
• 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 missions

Publications

• NASA TND-233, “The Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite over a Selected Earth Position” 1960. Authors: T.H. Skopinski, Katherine G. Johnson
  
  This is a formal peer-reviewed NASA report. The practice at the time would have been not to list the female Computers as formal co-authors, so the fact that she was included is significant.

Published Biographies and References

• Katherine Johnson new Wikipedia entry – created 26 December 2009
• 
  “Katherine Johnson” Special Report, Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 11, 2009
• 
  “She Was a Computer When Computers Wore Skirts”, by: Jim Hodges, published by NASA Langley, 2008
• 
  African-American Registry, August 26, Katherine G. Johnson (2006)
• 
  Live, Learn, Pursue Passion – NASA Mathematician preps Class of 2006 to find its mission Capitol Chronicle, Summer 2006, Capitol College (12 pages, PDF format)
• 
  “Oral History Archive: Katherine Johnson” 2005, National Visionary Leadership Project
  
  Photo of a Young Katherine Johnson,
  
  later Photo of Katherine Johnson
• 
  “Mop Top” the “Hip Hop” Scientist Celebrates African-Americans in the Sciences:
  Katherine G. Johnson, 2003
  
  Photo of Astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison and Katherine G. Johnson
• 
  “black history… katherine g johnson (1918 – retired)”, UK-based Planet Science
• 
  “Katherine G. Johnson: Physicist, Space Scientist, Mathematician”
  Oracle Think Quest Education Foundation Library
• Vivian Ovelton Sammons, Blacks In Science And Medicine, 1989 (Taylor & Francis), ISBN-10: 0891166653
• 
  “BLACK CONTRIBUTORS TO SCIENCE AND ENERGY TECHNOLOGY” 1979,
  anonymous, U.S. Department Of Energy U.S. Government Printing Office, also available
  in
  ERIC electronic document

Personal

• On August 26, 1918, Katherine Coleman was born in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. In 1939, she married James Francis Goble and started a family. The Gobles had three daughters: Constance, Joylette, and Katherine. In 1956, James Goble died of an inoperable brain tumor. In 1959, Katherine Johnson married Lt. Colonel James A. Johnson. She sang in the choir of Carver Presbyterian Church for fifty years.
• Katherine Johnson and her husband live in Hampton, Virginia, and enjoy spending time with six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Ms. Johnson still plays piano, bridge, and solves puzzles.

Grateful thanks to
Lesa B. Roe, Gail S. Langevin, and Jim Hodges of NASA Langley, and to Kristin Yvonne Rozier of NASA Ames for their help in collecting and developing this information. All honor to Katherine Johnson for leading the way.