Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson in 2008
Born	Katherine Coleman (1918-08-26) August 26, 1918 (age 98) White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, U.S.
Residence	Hampton, Virginia
Nationality	American
Alma mater	West Virginia State University, West Virginia University
Occupation	Physicist, Mathematician
Employer	NACA, NASA
Known for	Calculating the trajectories for many NASA missions

Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson (born August 26, 1918) is an African American physicist and mathematician who made contributions to the United States' aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Known for accuracy in computerized celestial navigation, she conducted technical work at NASA that spanned decades. During this time, she calculated the trajectories, launch windows, and emergency back-up return paths for many flights from Project Mercury, including the early NASA missions of John Glenn and Alan Shepard, and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, through the Space Shuttle program. Her calculations were critical to the success of these missions. Johnson also did calculations for plans for a mission to Mars.

In 2015, Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was included in the BBC series 100 Women the next year. On February 26, 2017, she was honored on the 89th Academy Awards program, appearing with the stars of the movie Hidden Figures which is about the mathematicians working in the background at NASA during the Space Race.

Katherine Coleman - later to be called Katherine Johnson - was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, the daughter of Joshua and Joylette Coleman. She was the youngest of four children. Her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman and worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Her mother was a former teacher.