Today, Wednesday, October 6, the Department of Mathematics and IT at the University of Catania, an academic partner of the Coding Girls Programme, will inaugurate a lecture hall to Katherine Johnson. Her story became famous also thanks to the movie, Hidden Figures. In March 2017, several Coding were invited to Villa Taverna, the residence of the United States Ambassador to Italy, for a premiere screening of the movie. Cecilia Stajano [@Cstajano], Vice-President of the Coding Girls Association participated in video conference.
A Mathematician, Computer Scientist and Physicist, scientist Katherine Johnson contributed to the development of America’s aeronautics and space programmes, with the first digital computers used at NASA.
She was appreciated for the accuracy of her calculations in computerised space navigation and her many years as a Director at NASA until 1986. In particular, she was a protagonist in the preparation of dozens of space missions, from the launch of Liberty and moon satellites to the first Shuttle missions. She passed in 2020, having received 13 honoris causa doctorates and published over 60 important scientific works.
She has recently been welcomed into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and her story was recounted by “Hidden Figures” (2016), a movie directed by Theordore Melfi and based on the novel by Margot Lee Shetterly. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civil honour in the United States.
