Subsequently, West began to analyze satellite altimeter data from NASA's Geodetic Earth Orbiting program, to create models of the Earth's shape. In the early 1960s, West participated in an award-winning study that proved the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune. Concurrently, West earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma. West was a computer programmer in the Dahlgren division, and a project manager for processing systems for satellite data analysis. Here, she was the second black woman ever hired and one of only four black employees. In 1956, West was hired to work at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, (now the Naval Surface Warfare Center). Career ĭata processing report for GeoSat by Gladys West Afterward, she began another teaching position in Martinsville, Virginia. West returned to VSU to complete a Master of Mathematics degree, graduating in 1955. West graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, and then taught math and science for two years in Waverly, Virginia. She also joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
At VSU, West chose to study mathematics, a subject that was mostly studied at her college by men. West graduated as valedictorian in 1948, and received the scholarship.
#Gladys mae west biography full#
Īt West's high school, the top two students from each graduating class received full scholarships to Virginia State College (now formally University), a historically black public university. West saw education as her way to a different life. As well as working on the farm, her mother worked in a tobacco factory and her father worked for the railroad. She spent much of her childhood working on her family's small farm. Her family was an African-American farming family in a community of sharecroppers. Gladys Mae Brown was born in Sutherland, Virginia, in Dinwiddie County, a rural county south of Richmond. West was awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the development of satellite geodesy models. West was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018.
She is known for her contributions to mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and her work on the development of satellite geodesy models, that were later incorporated into the Global Positioning System (GPS). Gladys Mae West (née Brown born Octo) is an American mathematician.
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