1918 - 2020
Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".Johnson's work included calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Read more on Wikipedia
Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Katherine Johnson has received more than 11,474,190 page views. Her biography is available in 49 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 48 in 2019). Katherine Johnson is the 72nd most popular mathematician (up from 79th in 2019), the 434th most popular biography from United States (down from 421st in 2019) and the 5th most popular Mathematician.
Katherine Johnson is most famous for being one of the three African-American women who helped NASA launch John Glenn into space in 1962.
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Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
Languages Editions (L)
Effective Languages (L*)
Coefficient of Variation (CV)
Among mathematicians, Katherine Johnson ranks 72 out of 823. Before her are Hermann Minkowski, Jacob Bernoulli, Benoit Mandelbrot, Bhāskara II, Willebrord Snellius, and Zhang Heng. After her are Urbain Le Verrier, Giuseppe Peano, Andrey Kolmogorov, Richard Dedekind, Augustus De Morgan, and Regiomontanus.
1864 - 1909
HPI: 68.15
Rank: 66
1654 - 1705
HPI: 67.90
Rank: 67
1924 - 2010
HPI: 67.78
Rank: 68
1114 - 1185
HPI: 67.76
Rank: 69
1580 - 1626
HPI: 67.69
Rank: 70
78 - 139
HPI: 67.60
Rank: 71
1918 - 2020
HPI: 67.59
Rank: 72
1811 - 1877
HPI: 67.52
Rank: 73
1858 - 1932
HPI: 67.42
Rank: 74
1903 - 1987
HPI: 67.41
Rank: 75
1831 - 1916
HPI: 67.33
Rank: 76
1806 - 1871
HPI: 67.17
Rank: 77
1436 - 1476
HPI: 67.06
Rank: 78
Among people born in 1918, Katherine Johnson ranks 18. Before her are Helmut Schmidt, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Waldheim, Frederick Sanger, Gertrude B. Elion, and Alberto Ascari. After her are Jørn Utzon, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, William Holden, Billy Graham, Chaim Herzog, and Rosalia Lombardo. Among people deceased in 2020, Katherine Johnson ranks 12. Before her are Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Pierre Cardin, Olivia de Havilland, Max von Sydow, Qaboos bin Said al Said, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. After her are Krzysztof Penderecki, John le Carré, Ian Holm, Michel Piccoli, Albert Uderzo, and Alan Parker.
1918 - 2015
HPI: 69.95
Rank: 12
1918 - 1990
HPI: 69.93
Rank: 13
1918 - 2007
HPI: 69.82
Rank: 14
1918 - 2013
HPI: 68.29
Rank: 15
1918 - 1999
HPI: 68.13
Rank: 16
1918 - 1955
HPI: 68.02
Rank: 17
1918 - 2020
HPI: 67.59
Rank: 18
1918 - 2008
HPI: 67.10
Rank: 19
1918 - 2004
HPI: 66.63
Rank: 20
1918 - 1981
HPI: 65.64
Rank: 21
1918 - 2018
HPI: 64.27
Rank: 22
1918 - 1997
HPI: 64.05
Rank: 23
1918 - 1920
HPI: 63.94
Rank: 24
1926 - 2020
HPI: 71.96
Rank: 6
1922 - 2020
HPI: 71.95
Rank: 7
1916 - 2020
HPI: 71.19
Rank: 8
1929 - 2020
HPI: 70.69
Rank: 9
1940 - 2020
HPI: 70.24
Rank: 10
1920 - 2020
HPI: 69.69
Rank: 11
1918 - 2020
HPI: 67.59
Rank: 12
1933 - 2020
HPI: 66.98
Rank: 13
1931 - 2020
HPI: 66.39
Rank: 14
1931 - 2020
HPI: 66.23
Rank: 15
1925 - 2020
HPI: 66.23
Rank: 16
1927 - 2020
HPI: 66.14
Rank: 17
1944 - 2020
HPI: 65.97
Rank: 18
Among people born in United States, Katherine Johnson ranks 434 out of 18,182. Before her are Frank Abagnale (1948), Willem Dafoe (1955), Kip Thorne (1940), Joe Frazier (1944), Jessica Lange (1949), and Viggo Mortensen (1958). After her are Kim Basinger (1953), Robert Zemeckis (1952), Babe Ruth (1895), Oliver Stone (1946), George Clooney (1961), and Stephen Hillenburg (1961).
1948 - Present
HPI: 67.67
Rank: 428
1955 - Present
HPI: 67.65
Rank: 429
1940 - Present
HPI: 67.63
Rank: 430
1944 - 2011
HPI: 67.63
Rank: 431
1949 - Present
HPI: 67.63
Rank: 432
1958 - Present
HPI: 67.62
Rank: 433
1918 - 2020
HPI: 67.59
Rank: 434
1953 - Present
HPI: 67.57
Rank: 435
1952 - Present
HPI: 67.56
Rank: 436
1895 - 1948
HPI: 67.55
Rank: 437
1946 - Present
HPI: 67.55
Rank: 438
1961 - Present
HPI: 67.55
Rank: 439
1961 - 2018
HPI: 67.48
Rank: 440
Among mathematicians born in United States, Katherine Johnson ranks 5. Before her are John Forbes Nash Jr. (1928), Charles Sanders Peirce (1839), Claude Shannon (1916), and Norbert Wiener (1894). After her are Edward Norton Lorenz (1917), Herbert A. Hauptman (1917), Mary Jackson (1921), Alonzo Church (1903), Lloyd Shapley (1923), Sam Loyd (1841), and Karen Uhlenbeck (1942).
1928 - 2015
HPI: 78.62
Rank: 1
1839 - 1914
HPI: 70.93
Rank: 2
1916 - 2001
HPI: 69.89
Rank: 3
1894 - 1964
HPI: 69.52
Rank: 4
1918 - 2020
HPI: 67.59
Rank: 5
1917 - 2008
HPI: 63.04
Rank: 6
1917 - 2011
HPI: 62.43
Rank: 7
1921 - 2005
HPI: 60.82
Rank: 8
1903 - 1995
HPI: 59.06
Rank: 9
1923 - 2016
HPI: 58.35
Rank: 10
1841 - 1911
HPI: 56.65
Rank: 11
1942 - Present
HPI: 56.61
Rank: 12