Gladys West: The Mathematician Behind GPS

Gladys West was an American mathematician who helped make GPS. She was born in Sutherland, Virginia, on October 27, 1930. She worked at the U.S. Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia. She started there in 1956 and retired in 1998.

West used satellite data and complex calculations to model the shape of the Earth. Her work helped improve the accuracy of satellite navigation systems like GPS. In the 1970s she led work on Seasat, an ocean satellite project. In 1986 she published a report for the Geosat satellite. She died on January 17, 2026, at age 95 in Alexandria, Virginia.