![]() Generating an extremely accurate model required her to employ complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth's shape. Gladys West and Sam Smith look over data from the Global Positioning System at Dahlgren in 1985įrom the mid-1970s through the 1980s, West programmed an IBM 7030 Stretch computer to deliver increasingly precise calculations to model the shape of the Earth – an ellipsoid with irregularities, known as the geoid. She was recommended for a commendation in 1979. West consistently put in extra hours, cutting her team's processing time in half. She became project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project, the first satellite that could remotely sense oceans. Subsequently, West began to analyze data from satellites, putting together altimeter models of the Earth's shape. In the early 1960s, she participated in an award-winning astronomical study that proved the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune. Concurrently, West earned a second master's degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma. West was a programmer in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division for large-scale computers and a project manager for data-processing systems used in the analysis of satellite data. In 1956, West was hired to work at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, (now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center), where she was the second black woman ever hired and one of only four black employees. Afterward, she briefly took another teaching position in Martinsville, Virginia. West then returned to VSU to complete her Master of Mathematics degree, graduating in 1955. After graduating, she taught math and science for two years in Waverly, Virginia. West graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. ![]() She also became a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She was encouraged to major in science or math because of their difficulty, and West ultimately chose to study mathematics, a subject mostly studied at her college by men. ![]() She was initially unsure what college major to pursue at VSU, as she had excelled in all her subjects in high school. West, with her determination and discipline, graduated valedictorian in 1948 and received the much needed scholarship. At West's high school, the top two students of each graduating class received full-ride scholarships to Virginia State College (now formally University), a historically black public university. West began babysitting to help save but ultimately, her superior academic performance made the difference. Her parents tried their best to save but supporting an entire family on a sharecropper's wage didn't leave much left for West's education. When West was on her way to graduate high school, the only obstacle keeping her from higher education was a financial one. West realized early on that she did not want to work in the tobacco fields or factories like the rest of her family, and decided that education would be her way out. West's parents were both huge inspirations for her and led her to the strong and driven woman that West is seen to be in history today. Her mother worked at a tobacco factory, and her father was a farmer who also worked for the railroad. Her family was an African-American farming family in a community of sharecroppers, and she spent much of her childhood working on her family's small farm. West was born as Gladys Mae Brown in Sutherland, Virginia, in Dinwiddie County, a rural county south of Richmond. West was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018. Gladys Mae West is an American mathematician known for her contributions to the mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and her work on the development of the satellite geodesy models that were eventually incorporated into the Global Positioning System (GPS).
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