Dorothy Vaughan
20 September 1910 – 10 November 2008
Dorothy Vaughan was an American mathematician and computer programmer who worked at the Langley laboratory of NACA and later NASA. In 1949 she became head of the segregated West Area Computing unit, the first Black supervisor at the agency, and she later became an expert FORTRAN programmer in Langley's Analysis and Computation Division.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Dorothy Vaughan.
- Michael E. DeBakey (1908–2008) Overlapped 98 years →
- Oscar Niemeyer (1907–2012) Overlapped 98 years →
- Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Overlapped 98 years →
- Qian Xuesen (1911–2009) Overlapped 97 years →
- Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) Overlapped 97 years →
- Vo Nguyen Giap (1911–2013) Overlapped 97 years →
Life events
Born Dorothy Johnson; the family later moved to Morgantown, West Virginia.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReceived a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the historically Black university in Ohio.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgWorked as a teacher in Farmville, Virginia, for more than a decade during the Depression.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMarried Howard S. Vaughan Jr.; the couple had six children.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHired as a mathematician by NACA during the wartime expansion and assigned to the segregated West Area Computing unit.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBecame the first Black supervisor at NACA, a position she held for about a decade.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe segregated units were abolished with the creation of NASA and she moved to the new electronic computing division.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPrepared herself and the women she had supervised for the transition to electronic computers.
Source: en.wikipedia.org