8/11/2023 0 Comments Gladys westHere are some interesting facts about the unsung hero behind our modern GPS: This detailed mathematical model of the shape of the Earth was a building block for what would become the GPS orbit.Ī relentless hard worker, she went to classes in the evening after work at the naval base and gained another master’s degree in public administration, this time from the University of Oklahoma. She oversaw a team of five people and programmed an IBM 7030 Stretch computer, which was significantly faster than other machines at the time, to provide calculations for an accurate geodetic Earth model. She then became project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project Seasat was the first satellite that could monitor the oceans. In 1979, she received a commendation for her hard work from her departmental head at the naval base where she was stationed. In the early 1960s, Gladys West took part in an award-winning study that proved the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune. She understood that education (and hard work in attaining it) was her only way out of poverty, eventually studying and graduating from Virginia State College (now Virginia State University). Growing up at a time of enforced racial segregation in the US meant that the little Gladys had a tough upbringing in a family with a dozen other siblings, living on a farm as sharecroppers. Gladys West, credited with inventing the global positioning system (GPS), was born in 1930 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, USA. One of the Black scientists of our time is Dr. It is not often that scientists of African descent get any credit for inventions.
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