Katherine Johnson
E205226
Katherine Johnson was an African American mathematician whose critical orbital mechanics calculations for NASA enabled early U.S. crewed spaceflights, including John Glenn’s historic mission.
All labels observed (7)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1836044 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Katherine Johnson Context triple: [NASA Exceptional Service Medal, notableRecipient, Katherine Johnson]
-
A.
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American character actress best known for her iconic portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."
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B.
Margaret Bell Ervin
Margaret Bell Ervin was the wife of U.S. Senator Sam Ervin, known primarily for her role as his lifelong partner and supporter during his long legal and political career.
-
C.
Henrietta Hill Swope
Henrietta Hill Swope was an American astronomer known for her pioneering work on variable stars and for being one of the first women to make significant contributions to modern observational astronomy.
-
D.
Sally K. Ride
Sally K. Ride was an American physicist and astronaut who became the first American woman in space and later served on high-level investigative panels into NASA shuttle disasters.
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E.
Shirley Ann Jackson
Shirley Ann Jackson is an American physicist and trailblazing academic leader renowned for her pioneering research in theoretical physics and for being one of the first Black women to earn a Ph.D. from MIT.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Katherine Johnson Target entity description: Katherine Johnson was an African American mathematician whose critical orbital mechanics calculations for NASA enabled early U.S. crewed spaceflights, including John Glenn’s historic mission.
-
A.
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American character actress best known for her iconic portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."
-
B.
Margaret Bell Ervin
Margaret Bell Ervin was the wife of U.S. Senator Sam Ervin, known primarily for her role as his lifelong partner and supporter during his long legal and political career.
-
C.
Henrietta Hill Swope
Henrietta Hill Swope was an American astronomer known for her pioneering work on variable stars and for being one of the first women to make significant contributions to modern observational astronomy.
-
D.
Sally K. Ride
Sally K. Ride was an American physicist and astronaut who became the first American woman in space and later served on high-level investigative panels into NASA shuttle disasters.
-
E.
Shirley Ann Jackson
Shirley Ann Jackson is an American physicist and trailblazing academic leader renowned for her pioneering research in theoretical physics and for being one of the first Black women to earn a Ph.D. from MIT.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
African American
ⓘ
NASA employee ⓘ aerospace technologist ⓘ human ⓘ mathematician ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Congressional Gold Medal
ⓘ
NASA Group Achievement Award ⓘ NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement Award ⓘ Presidential Medal of Freedom ⓘ Silver Snoopy Award ⓘ |
| birthName | Creola Katherine Coleman ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1918-08-26 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2020-02-24 ⓘ |
| degree | Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and French ⓘ |
| educatedAt | West Virginia State College ⓘ |
| employer |
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
ⓘ
linked to:
NACA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration ⓘ
linked to:
NASA
|
| ethnicGroup |
African Americans
ⓘ
linked to:
Black Americans
|
| familyName | Johnson ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
aerospace engineering
ⓘ
mathematics ⓘ orbital mechanics ⓘ |
| fullName |
Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson
ⓘ
linked to:
Katherine Johnson
|
| genreOfWork | spaceflight trajectory calculations ⓘ |
| givenName |
Katherine
ⓘ
linked to:
Kathryn
|
| honoredIn |
Hidden Figures (2016 film)
ⓘ
linked to:
Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures (book) ⓘ
linked to:
Hidden Figures
|
| memberOf | Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated ⓘ |
| notableAchievement |
helped enable the first American orbital spaceflight
ⓘ
performed critical orbital mechanics calculations for early U.S. crewed spaceflights ⓘ verified computer-generated orbital calculations by hand for John Glenn’s mission ⓘ |
| notableFor | breaking racial and gender barriers in STEM at NASA ⓘ |
| notableWork |
calculations for Apollo 11 lunar landing trajectory
ⓘ
calculations for John Glenn’s orbital mission Friendship 7 ⓘ co-authorship of NASA technical reports on spaceflight trajectories ⓘ trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission ⓘ work on Earth Resources Satellite ⓘ work on Space Shuttle program ⓘ |
| numberOfChildren | 3 ⓘ |
| occupation |
mathematician
ⓘ
teacher ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, United States ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath |
Newport News, Virginia, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Newport News, Virginia
|
| residence |
Newport News, Virginia, United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Newport News, Virginia
|
| spouse |
James A. Johnson
ⓘ
James Francis Goble ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
Katherine Johnson (biographies and documentaries)
ⓘ
linked to:
Katherine Johnson
|
| workLocation | Langley Research Center ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Katherine Johnson Description of subject: Katherine Johnson was an African American mathematician whose critical orbital mechanics calculations for NASA enabled early U.S. crewed spaceflights, including John Glenn’s historic mission.
Referenced by (18)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility
→
namedAfter
→
Katherine Johnson
ⓘ
linked to: Katherine Johnson
linked to: Katherine Johnson
linked to: Katherine Johnson
linked to: Katherine Johnson
linked to: Katherine Johnson
subject linked to:
Taraji P. Henson (as caregiver figure in related narrative arc)
linked to: Katherine Johnson