Mary Jackson (engineer)

Mary Jackson (April 9, 1921 – February 11, 2005) was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer. She was the first African American female engineer at NASA.

Born and raised in Hampton, Virginia, Jackson graduated with bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physical science from Hampton University. She began her career as a mathematics teacher in Maryland before returning to Hampton to work as a bookkeeper and then as a clerk at Fort Monroe.

In 1951, Jackson began working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which later became NASA, at the Langley Research Center in Hampton. She started as a "human computer" in the segregated West Area Computing unit.

Recognizing her potential, Kazimierz Czarnecki, a Polish engineer, encouraged Jackson to take graduate-level math and physics courses to qualify for a promotion to engineer. Because the classes were held at the then-segregated Hampton High School, Jackson had to petition the City of Hampton to allow her to attend.

After completing the required courses, Jackson became NASA's first Black female engineer in 1958. She worked at NASA for nearly two decades, authoring or co-authoring numerous research reports focusing on the boundary layer of air around aircraft.

Frustrated by the limited opportunities for advancement as an engineer, Jackson took a demotion in 1979 to become an Equal Opportunity Specialist. In this role, she worked to advocate for and mentor women and minorities in NASA’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. She retired from NASA in 1985.

Jackson's contributions to NASA were largely unrecognized until Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures (2016) and the subsequent film adaptation brought her story to a wider audience. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. In 2021, NASA renamed its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in her honor. Her legacy continues to inspire future generations of scientists and engineers, particularly women and minorities in STEM fields.