Mathematician Katherine Coleman Johnson

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Mathematician Katherine Coleman Johnson was born on August 26, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia to Joylette and Joshua Coleman. Her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman. He also worked at the Greenbrier Hotel. Her mother was a former teacher. Ms. Johnson’s nickname was “ the human computer “ At a very early age Ms. Johnson showed a talent for math, she was also anxious to go to school. Her interest was counting. She loved to count it did not matter what it was. She counted the steps to get to church, she counted the number and silverware she washed. Anything that can be counted she counted it. Ms. Katherine was named for the girl who loved to count. Her hobbies was reading book about math, numbers, nasa. If it had something …show more content…

Katherine Coleman Johnson was the first african american woman to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. SHe became one of three african-american students and the only female to integrate the graduate school. After the United States Supreme Court ruling Gaines v. Canada in 1938 the court ruled that since states provided higher education to white students also had to provide it to black students. Soon after graduating college she took a teaching job in african american public school in Virginia. She did teaching for a little but her passion was math. Katherine Coleman Johnson was motivated towards math because she loved numbers. She loved counting numbers, she loved doing equations. So she became one of the first african american female …show more content…

Second accomplishment is that Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers. Her social influence as a pioneer in space science and computing got her status as a role model for a life in science. Some awards she got was Honorary Doctor of Laws in 1998. In 1996 she was the outstanding alumnus of the year. Some of her recent awards was in 2015 when she got the presidential medal of freedom. One last award that she received in 2016 was the Presidential Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from West Virginia

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