This story was originally published on blackengineer.com
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Wednesday the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first Black female engineer at NASA.
Jackson started her career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
A mathematician and aerospace engineer, she went on to lead programs influencing the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.
“Mary W. Jackson was part of a group of very important women who helped NASA succeed in getting American astronauts into space.
It appropriately sits on ‘Hidden Figures Way,’ a reminder that Mary is one of many incredible and talented professionals in NASA’s history who contributed to this agency’s success.