MAE helped to host the visit to Princeton Engineering of Dr. Christine Darden, a pioneering mathematician and an aerospace engineer who enjoyed a 40-year career at NASA. She started her career as a data analyst at NASA Langley and was part of the human computers pool featured in the book “Hidden Figures” where she crunched numbers for engineers at the Langley Research Center. She received a transfer to engineering, where she worked extensively on sonic boom minimization, authoring more than 57 technical articles on the topic. She held many leadership positions during her career at NASA and has served as a consultant on numerous government and private projects. She retired from NASA in 2007 after a distinguished career, having served the last 8 years of her career as a member of the Senior Executive Services, which gave her the distinction of being the first African American appointed to the highest rank at NASA Langley Research Center. At a dinner held in Prospect House (this photo), Dr. Darden shared many life lessons and advice with MAE students, researchers, and faculty.