Gladys West was born on October 27th, 1930; and is 91 years old. Gladys Mae Brown West graduated first in her high school class, earning her a scholarship to Virginia State College; she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1952. She emerged as an integral part of the team that developed the modern Global Positioning System, tirelessly collecting data from orbiting satellites and developing mathematical algorithms for supercomputers to process precise surface elevations. She later became project manager for the radar altimetry data processing project of Seasat, the first satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth’s oceans, for which she received a commendation.