Dorothy Vaughan

What she did

Led NACA's segregated West Area Computing unit from 1949 to 1958 and developed expertise in FORTRAN programming.

Impact and significance

Her work combined mathematical calculation with supervising women whose work supported aeronautical research, across the transition from human calculation to electronic computing.

This is Matria’s interpretation, not a quotation or personalised advice.

Works recorded in the archive

• Led the West Area Computing unit, NACA / NASA
• Early FORTRAN programming for electronic computers

Sources and access

• Dorothy Vaughan, NASA biography
• Shetterly, Margot Lee. Hidden Figures. William Morrow, 2016.Bibliographic reference. Consult the named edition through a library or publisher.
• NASA biography of Dorothy Vaughan.Bibliographic reference. Consult the named edition through a library or publisher.

This label concerns the sources on this record. It does not validate every argument an author makes or establish what is true for a reader. Bibliographic coverage does not mean every passage or quotation has been verified. Specialist review remains pending.