GREENVILLE, Texas –– One of the women immortalized in the recent movie “Hidden Figures” was chosen to be the namesake of a new STEM school in northeast Texas. 

The Katherine G. Johnson STEM Academy in Greenville Texas, a small city 45 miles north of Dallas, is scheduled to open for the fall 2017 semester and will teach a science, technology, engineering and math curriculum to grades K-5.

Johnson, a physicist and mathematician, contributed greatly to the U.S. aeronautics and space programs with the early application of electronic computers at NASA. 

She calculated the trajectories, launch windows and emergency back-up return paths for many flights from Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, through the Space Shuttle program.

Her calculations were critical to the success of these missions. Johnson also did calculations for plans for a mission to Mars. In 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The 2016 movie, Hidden Figures, is based on her contributions to NASA and was nominated for three Oscars, for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.

Johnson’s name beat out two legendary female astronauts in an online survey offered by the district by a 46 percent margin.

The other finalists for the school name included Sharon “Christa” McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, who was one of seven crewmembers killed during the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, and Mae Jemison, the first African-American female astronaut to fly into space, aboard the Endeavor in 1992.

Keller writes for the Greenville, Texas Herald-Banner.