Recognition comes late for a Black woman mathematician

She built authority outside a conventional academic research path, raising questions about mental skill, education and mathematical culture.

Her books included puzzles, popular mathematics and an early Indian study arguing for understanding rather than criminalizing homosexuality.

West became a mathematician and programmer whose geodetic models contributed to the technology underlying GPS.

She used satellite observations and numerical computation to refine an oblate, irregular model of the planet.

Orbit calculations, error correction and large datasets were essential long before a navigation device could report a position.

The large electronic computer demonstrated that many numerical procedures could be executed at unprecedented speed.

Six women translated mathematical problems into switch settings, cable connections and operation sequences, yet were long omitted from accounts.

The machine was commissioned for artillery tables, connecting mathematical innovation with military power.

ENIAC required decomposition of equations, planning of data flow, testing and debugging before stored-program languages existed.

The lunar module reached the Moon after a mission dependent on trajectory design, numerical simulation, navigation and real-time calculation.