NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. will be named after its first African American female engineer, Mary W. Jackson. The woman who inspired the movie Hidden Figures, was a mathematician and aerospace engineer. Mary started her career in the West Area Computing Unit at NASA’s research center in Hampton, Virginia. 

Marys originally started as a research mathematician and then became one of the human computers at the research center. In 1958, she became NASA’s first black female engineer. Throughout her career as an engineer at NASA, Mary authored or co-authored numerous research reports. Her focus was on the behavior of the boundary layer of air that’s around airplanes. 

It wouldn’t be until years later when Mary’s work at NASA would be honored and recognized. Author Margot Lee Shetterly released her book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race in 2016. One year later the book would be adapted into a film and the world would know of these hidden figures.  In a released statement, NASA said:

“The nation is beginning to awaken to the greater need to honor the full diversity of people who helped pioneer our great nation. “