Dorothy Vaughan
| Dorothy Vaughan | |
|---|---|
Dorothy Vaughan
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| Born | Dorothy Johnson September 20, 1910 Kansas City, Missouri, United States |
| Died | November 10, 2008 (aged 98) Hampton, Virginia United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | NACA, Langley Research Center |
| Alma mater | Wilberforce University, 1929 |
Dorothy Johnson Vaughan (September 20, 1910 – November 10, 2008) was an African-American mathematician who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and NASA, at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In 1949, she became acting supervisor of the West Area Computers, the first African-American woman to supervise a staff at the center.
She later was promoted officially to this position. During her 28-year career, Vaughan prepared for the introduction of machine computers in the early 1960s by teaching herself and her staff the programming language of FORTRAN; she later headed the programming section of the Analysis and Computation Division (ACD) at Langley.
Vaughan is one of the women featured in Margot Lee Shetterly's history Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016). It was adapted as a biographical film of the same name, also released in 2016.
Dorothy Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Annie and Leonard Johnson. Her family moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where she graduated from Beechurst High School in 1925.[3] Receiving a full-tuition scholarship, she graduated at the age of 19 with a B.A. in mathematics in 1929 from Wilberforce University, a historically black college located in Wilberforce, Ohio.
Although encouraged by professors to do graduate study at Howard University, Johnson soon started working as a teacher. She wanted to assist her family during the Great Depression. Dorothy married Howard S. Vaughan Jr. in 1932, and the couple had four children.
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