A BRILLIANT mathematician at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a trailblazer for women in science, Katherine Johnson broke racial and gender barriers as one of the first few African-American women to work as a NASA scientist. During her time at NASA from the 1950s to 1980s, she became renowned for her mathematical prowess, and was responsible for putting the first Americans in space, calculating the trajectories for their space flights and subsequent crewed space missions. Becoming an avid spokesperson for STEM education in her later life, her work has inspired generations of people to follow in her footsteps, showing that anyone can triumph in their desired fields, no matter the obstacles placed before them.
