Gladys West
The Week Junior Science+Nature UK|Issue 79
Meet the hidden figure behind the navigation system in your smartphone.
Gladys West

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is used by people all over the world. The technology tracks your location and helps people to find their way around wherever they are on the planet. Gladys West is an American mathematician who worked at a US Navy base. She contributed to the development of GPS, but her achievements were only officially recognised in 2018. She is now 93, but we were lucky to be able to speak to West's daughter, Carolyn Oglesby, about her mum's incredible story.

Country girl West was born in 1930 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, US. Her parents owned a small farm, where she spent her time helping to harvest crops. Carolyn told Science+Nature, “When [West] was working on the farm, she knew that she wanted to do something different. She knew that education was the path to that.” Although it was expensive, West wanted to go to college so, when her teacher revealed that the top two students in her year could win a scholarship (money to help pay for further studies), West worked as hard as she could to finish top of her class.

この記事は The Week Junior Science+Nature UK の Issue 79 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は The Week Junior Science+Nature UK の Issue 79 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

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