Margot Lee Shetterly

Margot Lee Shetterly

Shetterly is the author of “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race,” which was a top book of 2016 for both Time magazine and Publisher’s Weekly, a USA Today bestseller and a No. 1 New York Timesbestseller. The book recounts the true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped make possible some of America’s greatest achievements in space.

“Shetterly shines a much-needed light on the bright, talented, and wholly underappreciated geniuses of the institution that would become NASA. …  Shetterly’s highly recommended work offers up a crucial history that had previously and unforgivably been lost. We’d do well to put this book into the hands of young women who have long since been told that there’s no room for them at the scientific table.”  Library Journal

Shetterly is also the founder of the Human Computer Project, a digital archive telling the stories and accomplishments of the women who worked as computers, mathematicians, scientists and engineers at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and NASA from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Her research has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She is currently a scholar-in-residence at the University of Virginia, with joint appointments at the McIntire School of Commerce and the School of Engineering.

Shetterly’s book will be available for purchase from MSU’s Bookstore. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow the talk.

This event is co-sponsored by the President’s Office and Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

For questions or accommodations, please contact James Tobin at [email protected].

Shetterly is the third and final speaker in the President's Crossing Boundaries Speaker Series.  In August, the series will feature Tommy Orange, an acclaimed Cheyenne and Arapaho author whose novels chronicle contemporary Native American life. These events are free and open to the public. Visit the President's Crossing Boundaries Speakers Series for more information.