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MPR News Presents
The Associated Press

Remembering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson

Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson, a mathematician at NASA, contributed to NACA and NASA programs from 1953 to 1986. The was the first woman to receive credit as an author of a Flight Research Division report in 1960, contributing to many programs involving orbital mechanics. She was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
NASA

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In this feature we remember NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who died this year at the age of 101. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. A NASA building is named for her.

Margot Lee Shetterly, author of "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race," was the Distinguished Carlson Lecturer at the University of Minnesota in 2017.

Presented by the University of Minnesota Humphrey School, Carlson and the Carlson Family Foundation, the presentation included a discussion with Shetterly and Michele Norris, executive director of The Race Card Project at the Aspen Institute.

The two discussed the many ways women and people of color have contributed to American innovation and explored the prejudice and bias they had to fight against along the way.

To hear that discussion, click the first audio player above.

Additional content

Recently, a joint production by the Washington Post and APM reports, titled "Historically Black," featured the story of Miriam Daniel Mann, who removed the signs designating areas for "colored computers" while working at Langley Airfield. Professor Duchess Harris of Macalester College in St. Paul is featured in this report, speaking about her grandmother who worked at NASA.

To hear that feature, click this link to APM Reports’ page.

Shetterly's bestselling book is the inspiration for the 2016 film "Hidden Figures," which was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.