Katherine Goble Johnson
Born 1918
Katherine is 100 years old. She has a truly brilliant mind. By age 13, she was attending high school at West Virginia State College. When she was 19, she had graduated from college with highest honors and accepted a job as a teacher. Two years later she was selected as one of three individuals to integrate West Virginia's graduate schools. When she was 34, she started working for NACA (which later became NASA). She did the math and computing for several important space missions. Her work was creative, unprecedented, and important. Her math ensured that the astronauts would stay safe. She authored and co-authored dozens of papers and was among the first women at NASA to be recognized for her valuable contributions. She worked there for 33 years before she retired. “I loved going to work every single day,” she said. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.