Katherine Johnson: What to Learn from the ‘Amazon’ Computer and NASA scientist

“There is one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience”

Years ago, the challenges faced were more archaic which indicated outdated resources to tackle them.

Remember computers? Or say calculators? Imagine life without them! Well, there was a time certain individuals were called computers (all women)/and amongst them was an extraordinary woman-

KATHERINE JOHNSON

Katherine Johnson was an African American mathematician who worked for NASA from 1953 -1986. She was a human computer. At the time, minorities held very few jobs in mathematics and science, however, Johnson was a trailblazer. Her work in calculating the paths for spaceships to travel was monumental in helping NASA successfully put an American in orbit around Earth. Then her work also helped to land astronauts on the Moon as well as back.

Creola Katherine Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, on the 26th of August, 1918 and died on the 24th of February, 2020.

Being handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools was a dream back then that many people would deem as a significant life occurrence, but it was just one of several breakthroughs that have marked Katherine Johnson’s exceptionally lengthy life.

Johnson showed strong mathematical abilities from an early age. Her intense inquisitiveness and brilliance with numbers vaulted her ahead several grades in school. By 13, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College and at 18, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school’s math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics.

She graduated in 1937 with highest honors and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.

When Johnson was 34 years old, she applied for a job at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. NACA was the name of the government agency that later became NASA. In the early to mid-1950s, NACA was just beginning its work on studying space. The NACA was hiring women—including African Americans—to be “computers.” These female computers calculated the mathematics for the engineers who were working on the space program. The first time Johnson applied, all of the jobs were already filled. She was disappointed, but she didn’t give up. Johnson applied the following year, and that time the agency offered her a job. She took it and worked with a large group of women who were all computers like herself. As Johnson worked on math problems with the other female computers, she would ask questions. She didn’t want to just do the work—she wanted to know the “hows” and the “whys,” and then the “why nots.” By asking questions, Johnson began to stand out.

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

“At first, Johnson 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 her 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 the editorial meetings (where no women had gone before). She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged.

At some point, Johnson was reassigned to the Guidance and Control Division of Langley’s Flight Research Division which was staffed by white male engineer. In keeping with state racial segregation laws, and federal workplace segregation introduced under President Woodrow Wilson in the early 20th century, Johnson and the other African-American women in the computing pool were required to work, eat, and use restrooms that were separate from those of their white peers. Their office was labeled as “Colored Computers”. In an interview with WHRO-TV, Johnson stated that she “didn’t feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job … and play bridge at lunch.” She added: “I didn’t feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn’t feel it.”

Johnson had this to say about that era (i believe it is still relevant today):

“We needed to be assertive as women in those days – assertive and aggressive – and the degree to which we had to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be. In the early days of NASA women were not allowed to put their names on the reports – no woman in my division had had her name on a report. I was working with Ted Skopinski and he wanted to leave and go to Houston … but Henry Pearson, our supervisor – he was not a fan of women – kept pushing him to finish the report we were working on. Finally, Ted told him, “Katherine should finish the report, she’s done most of the work anyway.” So Ted left Pearson with no choice; I finished the report and my name went on it, and that was the first time a woman in our division had her name on something.”

It is important to note that when NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn’s orbit around Earth, officials called on Johnson to verify the computer’s numbers; Glenn had asked for her specifically and had refused to fly unless Johnson verified the calculations.

Johnson later worked directly with digital computers. Her ability and reputation for accuracy helped to establish confidence in the new technology. In 1961, her work helped to ensure that Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 Mercury capsule would be found quickly after landing, using the accurate trajectory that had been established. She also helped to calculate the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. In 1970, Johnson worked on the Apollo 13 Moon mission. When the mission was aborted, her work on backup procedures and charts helped set a safe path for the crew’s return to Earth, creating a one-star observation system that would allow astronauts to determine their location with accuracy. In a 2010 interview, Johnson recalled, “Everybody was concerned about them getting there. We were concerned about them getting back.” Later in her career, Johnson worked on the Space Shuttle program, the Earth Resources Satellite, and on plans for a mission to Mars. Johnson spent her later years encouraging students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers. Her social influence as a pioneer in space science and computing is demonstrated by the honors she received and her status as a role model for a life in science. Johnson was named West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 1999. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of 17 Americans so honored on November 24, 2015. She was cited as a pioneering example of African-American women in STEM.

She was awarded 1971, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986: NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award. In 1977, NASA Group Achievement Award presented to the Lunar Spacecraft and Operations team – for pioneering work in the field of navigation supporting the spacecraft that orbited and mapped the Moon in preparation for the Apollo program.1998, Honorary Doctor of Laws, from SUNY Farmingdale, 1999, West Virginia State College Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, 2006, Honorary Doctor of Science by the Capitol College, Laurel, Maryland, 2010, Honorary Doctorate of Science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 2014, De Pizan Honor from National Women’s History Museum, 2015, NCWIT Pioneer in Tech Award, 2015, Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2016, Silver Snoopy award from Leland Melvin, 2016, Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Arthur B.C. Walker II Award, 2016, Presidential Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.

 On December 1, 2016, Johnson received the Langley West Computing Unit NASA Group Achievement Award at a reception at the Virginia Air and Space Center. Other awardees included her colleagues, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. 2017, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Medal of Honor, 2017 Honorary Doctorate from Spelman College, May 12, 2018, Honorary Doctorate of Science from the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, On April 29, 2019, the University of Johannesburg and its Faculty of Science conferred Johnson with the degree of Philosophiae Doctor Honoris causa for her pioneering role at NASA. November 8, 2019, Congressional Gold Medal and 2021, Induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.