absolute_tortillaJan 21
Chuck Darwin

Dr. Gladys West,
the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology,
has died. She passed away Saturday, surrounded by her loving family. She was 95.

Born into poverty on a Virginia farm during the Jim Crow era, West grew up in a segregated South where opportunity was scarce.

Through determination and extraordinary academic talent,
she graduated first in her high school class and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College (now Virginia State University).

She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1952 and went on to earn a master’s degree in 1955.

In 1956, West began working as a mathematician at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.

She was only the second African American woman hired at the base and one of just four African American employees at the time.

What followed was a career that would quietly change the world.

Over many years, Jane Plitt, founder and board chair of the Alexandria-based "National Center for Women’s Innovations" (NCWI), made it her mission to put Gladys West on the map
—quite literally.

West’s story became the centerpiece of NCWI’s inaugural work,
culminating in a lavish gala celebrating her 93rd birthday on October 27, 2023.

Emceed by Deborah Roberts, the evening showcased West’s extraordinary contributions,
with West herself declaring,
“This is the best day of my life.”

https://thezebra.org/2026/01/18/dr-gladys-west-mathematician-whose-work-made-gps-possible-dies-at-95/

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away

The Zebra--Good News in Alexandria
Jan 20 at 12:59amWeb
Show threadNu ModularJan 20
@cdarwin Thanks for this, Chuck. It really made my MLK Day. Such a wonderful tribute to a real pioneer.
Show threadkevinJan 20

@cdarwin This is a wonderful story. I despair that the world is being deprived of stories like this.

It’s times like now that i remind myself that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

today that type of optimism is in short supply, but I believe that the reverend doctor was correct, but he may have missed by a century or two.

Show threadquixoteJan 20

@kmmfoo @cdarwin It's not just belief and optimism. It's logic and evidence, too.

Just outcomes make people feel better, more content. They'll expend effort to keep them or work toward them. So, even if the amount of improvement seems infinitesimal / inconsequential at the time, the layers accumulate like sedimentary rock.

Unjust outcomes, on the other hand, are hated by people subject to them, which is most people since they're caused by exploitative individuals of various kinds. So those outcomes don't become stories people live by. They die with their perps and have to be reinvented.

The problem for intuition is that all that happens in near-geological time. In any single lifetime everything almost always looks kind of hopeless.

But think in millenia, and it's less so. 4000 years ago I think every (?) known culture took slavery for granted as the only way to organize labour. War was the _only_ way to resolve disputes. Torture was an accepted tactic. Rule of law wasn't even a dream.

We still have all those problems, but they're now the miscarriages, much less the norm.

Things do change toward justice. It's only hard to see.

Show threadadamriceJan 20
@cdarwin The mathematics of how GPS signals work are amazing. Here’s a long, interactive explainer (better viewed on a desktop computer). https://ciechanow.ski/gps/
GPS – Bartosz Ciechanowski

Interactive article explaining how GPS works.

Show threadjackcoleJan 20
@cdarwin her wikipedia entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_West
Gladys West - Wikipedia

Show threadNuwagaba GiftJan 22
@cdarwin
Her story is really inspiring. Many people from humble backgrounds need to hear such a story in order to shape their future.