Born on 10 September 1942 in Monroe, North Carolina, Christine Mann Darden is a mathematician and aerospace engineer who led research efforts at NASA to minimize sonic boom. Darden excelled in school and received a scholarship to attend Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), a historically black college. After receiving her BS in mathematics education in 1962, Darden worked as a high school math teacher. She then earned an MS in applied mathematics from Virginia State College in 1967 and that same year was hired by NASA as a data analyst—one of the famed women “human computers”—at Langley Research Center. Over the next four decades, Darden rose through the ranks at NASA, serving as aerospace engineer, technical leader of the sonic boom research program, deputy program manager in the high-speed research program, and director of Langley’s Office of Strategic Communications and Education. She also continued her education, earning her doctorate in mechanical engineering from George Washington University in 1983. She has served as a technical consultant on government and private projects and has written more than 50 scientific papers. Among the many awards she has received are the 1987 Candace Award for Science and Technology from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Darden is one of the researchers featured in the 2016 book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly (see the review in Physics Today, January 2017, page 57). In January 2018 Darden received the Presidential Citizenship Award at Hampton University. (Photo credit: NASA)
