The University of Virginia is collaborating with “Hidden Figures” author Margot Lee Shetterly to unearth the history of the female human computers whose mathematical calculations were behind almost all aspects of organized scientific research and development in the 20th century.
Shetterly, a McIntire School of Commerce alumna, wrote the award-winning book “Hidden Figures,” which was later adapted into a high-grossing film, about women computers who worked for NASA near her hometown in Hampton. Shetterly focused on just four of the women – all of whom were Black – who made astronaut John Glenn’s 1962 space launch successful, but thousands of other women were instrumental to the 20th century’s technological advancements.
Shetterly’s research into those women has evolved into the Human Computer Project, which documents the women who worked at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
