Christine Darden is an aerospace engineer whose research at NASA advanced supersonic flight. She is one of the women featured in the book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. Darden joined NASA in 1967 at NASA Langley Research Center, where she initially worked as a human computer. In 1983 Darden earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering and was promoted to engineer, one of the few female aerospace engineers at Langley during that time. In 1989, Darden was appointed as leader of the sonic boom team. Her research focused on understanding and minimizing sonic booms. She was the first African American woman at NASA’s Langley Research Center to be promoted to the Senior Executive Service, the top rank in the federal civil service. In 2019, Darden was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the oldest and joint-highest civilian award in the United States.
