Women in STEM History - Mary Jackson

Todays Woman in STEM history is Mary Jackson. Hopefully you’ve heard of her before, because she’s been portrayed by Janelle Monáe in the film Hidden Figures. Mary Jackson was first hired in 1951 at Langley Research Centre as a “computer”or what we would now call a research mathematician. In 1953, she moved within Langley to work with Kazimierz Czarnecki in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. It took her sometime to become qualified as an engineer but from 1958 to 1979 she worked as an Aeronautical Engineer for NASA, the first black woman to do so. From 1979 she continued to work for NASA as the Federal Women’s Program Manager in the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs until her retirement in 1985 . She authored or co-authored 12 technical papers over her time at NASA and helped many women and other minorities advance their careers within NASA. You can read more in the book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race” by Margot Lee Shetterly or on NASA’s own website.