7/23/2019 Mary Jackson (engineer) - Wikipedia

Mary Jackson (engineer)

Mary Jackson (née Winston,[1] April 9, 1921 – February 11, 2005) was
Mary Jackson
an African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which in 1958 was
succeeded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of
her career. She started as a computer at the segregated West Area
Computing division. She took advanced engineering classes and, in 1958,
became NASA's first black female engineer.

After 34 years at NASA, Jackson had earned the most senior engineering
title available. She realized she could not earn further promotions without
becoming a supervisor. She accepted a demotion to become a manager of
both the Federal Women’s Program, in the NASA Office of Equal
Opportunity Programs, and of the Affirmative Action Program. In this role,
she worked to influence both the hiring and promotion of women in Mary Jackson in 1979
NASA's science, engineering, and mathematics careers.
Born Mary Winston
Jackson's story features in the 2016 non-fiction book Hidden Figures: The April 9, 1921
American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Hampton, Virginia, US
Win the Space Race. She is one of the three protagonists in Hidden Died February 11, 2005
Figures, the film adaptation released the same year. (aged 83)
Hampton, Virginia, US
Resting Bethel AME Church
Contents place Cemetery, Hampton,
Virginia
Personal life
Nationality American
Career
Legacy Alma mater Hampton Institute
Awards and honors Scientific career
Publications Fields Aerospace
References engineering,
External links mathematician
Institutions NASA

Personal life
Mary Winston was born on April 9, 1921, to Ella (née Scott) and Frank Winston.[2] She grew up in Hampton, Virginia,
where she graduated from the all-black George P. Phenix Training School with highest honors.[3]

Mary Jackson earned bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physical science from Hampton University in 1942.[4][5]
She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha.[4]

Jackson served for more than 30 years as a Girl Scout leader.[3] She was noted in the 1970s for helping African
American children in her community create a miniature wind tunnel for testing airplanes.[5][6][3]

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Jackson was married on 18 November 1944 to Levi Jackson, Sr., a sailor in the U.S. Navy,[5][7] and had two children,
Levi Jackson, Jr., and Carolyn Marie Lewis.[5] She died on February 11, 2005, age 83.[4]

Career
After graduation, Mary Jackson taught mathematics for a year at an
African-American school in Calvert County, Maryland.[3] At that
time, public schools were still segregated across the South. She also
began tutoring high school and college students, which she
continued to do throughout her life.[8]

By 1943, she had returned to Hampton, where she became a

bookkeeper at the National Catholic Community Center there. She
worked as a receptionist and clerk at the Hampton Institute's Health
Department. She was pregnant during this time and eventually
returned home for the birth of her son. In 1951, she became a clerk
at the Office of the Chief Army Field Forces at Fort Monroe.[3][8] Jackson working at a control panel

In 1951, Jackson was recruited by the National Advisory Committee

for Aeronautics (NACA), which in 1958 was succeeded by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).[5][6][9] She
started as a research mathematician, or computer, at the Langley
Research Center in her hometown of Hampton, Virginia. She
worked under Dorothy Vaughan in the segregated West Area
Computing Section.[3]

In 1953, she accepted an offer to work for engineer Kazimierz

Czarnecki in the Supersonic Pressure Tunnel. The 4 by 4 foot (1.2 by
Jackson holding a wind tunnel model 1.2 m), 60,000 horsepower (45,000 kW) wind tunnel used to study
forces on a model by generating winds at almost twice the speed of
sound.[3] Czarnecki encouraged Jackson to undergo training so that
she could be promoted to an engineer. She needed to take graduate-level courses in mathematics and physics to
qualify for the job. They were offered in a night program by the University of Virginia, held at the all-white Hampton
High School. Jackson petitioned the City of Hampton to allow her to attend the classes. After completing the courses,
she was promoted to aerospace engineer in 1958, and became NASA's first black female engineer.[10][6][3] She
analyzed data from wind tunnel experiments and real-world aircraft flight experiments at the Theoretical
Aerodynamics Branch of the Subsonic-Transonic Aerodynamics Division at Langley.[5] Her goal was to understand air
flow, including thrust and drag forces, in order to improve United States planes.[5]

Jackson worked as an engineer in several NASA divisions: the Compressibility Research Division, Full-Scale Research
Division, High-Speed Aerodynamics Division, and the Subsonic-Transonic Aerodynamics Division.[8] She ultimately
authored or co-authored 12 technical papers for NACA and NASA.[8][11][12][13] She worked to help women and other
minorities to advance their careers, including advising them how to study in order to qualify for promotions.[14]

By 1979, Jackson had achieved the most senior title within the engineering department. She decided to take a
demotion in order to serve as an administrator in the Equal Opportunity Specialist field. After undergoing training at
NASA Headquarters, she returned to Langley. She worked to make changes and highlight women and other minorities
who were accomplished in the field. She served as both the Federal Women’s Program Manager in the Office of Equal
Opportunity Programs and as the Affirmative Action Program Manager, and she worked to influence the career paths
of women in science, engineering, and mathematics positions at NASA.[3][14] She continued to work at NASA until her
retirement in 1985.[4]
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Legacy
The 2016 film Hidden Figures recounts the NASA careers of
Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan, specifically
their work on Project Mercury during the Space Race. The film is
based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly.
Jackson is portrayed in the film by Janelle Monáe.[15]

In 2018, the Salt Lake City School Board voted that Jackson
Elementary School in Salt Lake City would from then on be officially
named after Mary Jackson rather than (as it used to be) after
President Andrew Jackson.[16] Jackson working at the Langley Research
Center

Awards and honors

Apollo Group Achievement Award, 1969[3][8]
Daniels Alumni Award for Outstanding Service to Disadvantaged Youth[8]
National Council of Negro Women, Inc. Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Service to the Community[8]
Distinguished Service Award for her work with the Combined Federal Campaign representing Humanitarian
Agencies, 1972[8]
Langley Research Center Outstanding Volunteer Award, 1975[8]
Langley Research Center Volunteer of the Year, 1976[3]
Iota Lambda Sorority Award for the Peninsula Outstanding Woman Scientist, 1976[8]
King Street Community Center Outstanding Award[8]
National Technical Association's Tribute Award, 1976[8]
Hampton Roads Chapter "Book of Golden Deeds" for service[8]
Langley Research Center Certificate of Appreciation, 1976–1977[8]

Publications
Czarnecki, K. R.; Jackson, Mary W. (September 1958), Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition on
Cones at Supersonic Speeds (NACA TN 4388) (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930085290), National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
Jackson, Mary W.; Czarnecki, K.R. (1960), Investigation by Schlieren Technique of Methods of Fixing Fully
Turbulent Flow on Models at Supersonic Speeds, 242, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Czarnecki, K. R.; Jackson, Mary W. (January 1961), Effects of Cone Angle, Mach Number, and Nose Blunting on
Transition at Supersonic Speeds (NASA TN D-634) (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040006462), NASA
Langley Research Center
Jackson, Mary W.; Czarnecki, K. R. (July 1961), Boundary-Layer Transition on a Group of Blunt Nose Shapes at a
Mach Number of 2.20 (NASA TN D-932) (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19980227788), NASA Langley
Research Center
Czarnecki, K.R.; Jackson, Mary W.; Monta, William J. (1963), Studies of Skin Friction at Supersonic Speeds
(Turbulent Boundary Layer and Skin Friction Data for Supersonic Transports)
Jackson, Mary W.; Czarnecki, K. R.; Monta, William J. (July 1965), Turbulent Skin Friction at High Reynolds
Numbers and Low Supersonic Velocities, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Czarnecki, K.R.; Jackson, M.W.; Sorrells, R. B. III (December 1, 1966), Measurement by wake momentum
surveys at Mach 1.61 and 2.01 of turbulent boundary-layer skin friction on five swept wings (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/
search.jsp?R=19670003841&qs=N%3D4293861466), National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Czarnecki, K.R.; Allen, J. M.; Jackson, M.W. (January 1, 1967), Boundary-layer transition on hypersonic-cruise
aircraft (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19740075124&qs=N%3D4293861466), National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Czarnecki, K.R.; Jackson, M.W. (November 1, 1970), Theoretical pressure distributions over arbitrarily shaped
periodic waves in subsonic compressible flow and comparison with experiment (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?
R=19710002073&qs=N%3D4293861466), National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Czarnecki, K.R.; Jackson, Mary W. (December 1975). "Turbulent Boundary-Layer Separation due to a Forward-
Facing Step". AIAA Journal. 13 (12): 1585–1591. Bibcode:1975AIAAJ..13.1585C (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/
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1975AIAAJ..13.1585C). doi:10.2514/3.60582 (https://doi.org/10.2514%2F3.60582).

References
1. "Mary Jackson" (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Jackson-mathematician-and-engineer).
Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. April 5, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
2. Timmons, Greg (December 6, 2016). "Mary Winston-Jackson" (http://www.biography.com/people/mary-winston-ja
ckson-120616). Biography.com. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
3. Shetterly, Margot Lee. "Mary Jackson Biography" (https://www.nasa.gov/content/mary-jackson-biography). NASA.
Retrieved January 15, 2017.
4. "Mary Winston Jackson" (http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailypress/obituary.aspx?n=mary-winston-jackson&pid
=3163015). Legacy. Daily Press. February 13, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
5. Warren, Wini (1999). Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: Indiana University
Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-253-33603-3.
6. Lewis, Shawn D. (August 1977). "The Professional Woman: Her Fields Have Widened" (https://books.google.co
m/?id=08sDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=mary+winston+jackson#v=onepage&q=mary%20winston%2
0jackson&f=false). Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. 32 (10). ISSN 0012-9011 (https://www.worldcat.org/iss
n/0012-9011).
7. "Certificate of Marriage" (https://ibb.co/6HpS0T5). Retrieved 16 July 2019.
8. Mary W. Jackson (http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/9/96/MaryJackson1.pdf) (PDF), National Aeronautics
and Space Administration, October 1979, retrieved August 16, 2016
9. "Mary Winston Jackson" (http://omeka.macalester.edu/humancomputerproject/items/show/43). Human
Computers at NASA. Macalester College. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
10. Loff, Sarah (November 22, 2016). "Mary Jackson Biography" (https://www.nasa.gov/content/mary-jackson-biograp
hy). NASA. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
11. Czarnecki, K. R.; Jackson, Mary W. (September 1958), Effects of Nose Angle and Mach Number on Transition on
Cones at Supersonic Speeds (NACA TN 4388) (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930085290), National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, retrieved January 3, 2017
12. Czarnecki, K. R.; Jackson, Mary W. (January 1961), Effects of Cone Angle, Mach Number, and Nose Blunting on
Transition at Supersonic Speeds (NASA TN D-634) (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20040006462), NASA
Langley Research Center, retrieved January 3, 2017
13. Jackson, Mary W.; Czarnecki, K. R. (July 1961), Boundary-Layer Transition on a Group of Blunt Nose Shapes at a
Mach Number of 2.20 (NASA TN D-932) (https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19980227788), NASA Langley
Research Center, retrieved January 3, 2017
14. Champine, Gloria R. "Mary Jackson" (http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/4/4a/MaryJackson.pdf) (PDF).
NASA. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
15. Buckley, Cara (May 20, 2016). "Uncovering a Tale of Rocket Science, Race and the '60s" (https://www.nytimes.co
m/2016/05/22/movies/taraji-p-henson-octavia-spencer-hidden-figures-rocket-science-and-race.html). The New
York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved August 16, 2016.
16. 8:02 AM ET. "A School Goes From Andrew Jackson To Mary Jackson" (https://www.npr.org/2018/02/10/58475779
2/a-school-goes-from-andrew-jackson-to-mary-jackson). NPR. Retrieved 2018-02-11.

External links
"The Human Computer Project" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160806120505/http://www.thehumancomputerproj
ect.com/). Archived from the original (http://www.thehumancomputerproject.com/) on 2016-08-06. Retrieved
2017-02-02.
Mary Winston Jackson (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/174900723) at Find a Grave

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