![]() ![]() Johnson returned to teaching when her daughters were older. It is unclear if this was her choice or one that society dictated. After just a year however, Johnson decided to leave and focus on starting a family, clearly still the focus of the woman in 1940s America. When the quiet integration of race in the school system happened in West Virginia in 1939, Johnson along with two other black men were picked to attend the prestigious West Virginia University. Katherine continued this diligent rise in education into her college years: she graduated from High school top of her class aged eighteen, after which she followed her mother into the teaching profession. Margot Lee Shetterly indicates that “Johnson was ahead of her contemporaries at every level, she enrolled at High School aged thirteen and was often if not all of the time top of her class”. Katherine had always excelled at maths and was ahead of her class from an early age. She was the youngest of four children, her mother a teacher and her father an all-purpose odd job man. Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on the 26 th August 1918. ![]() ![]() To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are delighted that UoP history graduate Ian Atkins has written this profile of pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.įor International Women’s Day I have chosen to write about Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, most famous for her work in calculation of the trajectory for manned space orbits, and subsequent lunar expeditions. ![]()
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