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Anna Jean Easley

Anna Jean Easley

In 1955, Anna Jean Easley began her career as a “human computer,” doing computations for researchers at NASA. She analyzed problems and performed calculations by hand. She developed code used for battery technologies necessary for the earliest hybrid vehicles, as well as for the efficiency of upper-stage rockets. The foundation of her success as a mathematician and scholar was nurtured early at Holy Family High School, a Catholic school for African Americans in the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham. Thereafter, she studied at Xavier University in New Orleans.