(AURN News) — According to WTVR, Dr. Gladys West, the mathematician whose groundbreaking work helped make GPS possible, has died at 95.
West passed away over the weekend surrounded by family and friends. Born on a farm in Dinwiddie County during the Great Depression, she overcame segregation and barriers of the era to become a pioneering scientist.
While working at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, West spent years calculating highly precise mathematical models of the Earth’s shape.
That detailed work later became a key foundation for the Global Positioning System, the technology used every day for navigation and location services around the world.
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