Katherine Johnson was a trailblazer and a mathematician known for developing the calculations for taking the first US astronaut into space and safely landing Apollo11 on the moon. She was also a mother of 3 girls. THREAD 1/5 https://www.mothersinscience.com/trailblazers/katherine-johnson #BlackHistoryMonth #WomenInSTEM

Johnson’s remarkable intelligence became apparent at a young age. She started school at 5 but had to be moved into more advanced classes twice. By age 10, she was already in high school, and at 18 graduated summa cum laude in Maths and French. 2/5

Despite being a maths genius, as a #BlackWomenInSTEM in a segregated society Johnson had limited career opportunities, so she took a teaching job at a public high school. She later went to grad school, but decided to stop for a few years to raise her daughter. 3/5

In 1953, Johnson started working for @NASA as a "human computer". She was a single mom for some years until she met her second husband. She faced open workplace discrimination for being a #WOC but eventually became the first woman to put her name on a research report. 4/5

Johnson received many prestigious awards, but she rarely mentioned her achievements to her daughters. She also never told them that math was hard and always encouraged her grandchildren and students to pursue careers in #STEM. She died went she was 101. 5/5 #BlackHistoryMonth