The geodesy and GNSS worlds are mourning the loss of Gladys West, one of the fields’ pioneers, who passed away on 17 January at the age of 95.

West, a mathematician, was considered to be one of the ‘hidden figures’ of the early days of spaceflight, and someone who made contributions to geodesy and orbital mechanics that were vital for the development of GPS.

Every surveyor, every geospatial professional alive today who uses GNSS or GNSS-derived data products, benefits from West’s work.

Indeed, so does every member of the public who relies on services such as Google Maps and home deliveries, although they most likely don’t know it.

Among the many awards and honours she received was the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers award for her decades of contributions to the US Air Force’s space program.

According to the USAF, West was “among a small group of women who did computing for the US military in the era before electronic systems”.

“Hired in 1956 as a mathematician at the US Naval Weapons Laboratory, she participated in a path-breaking, award-winning astronomical study that proved, during the early 1960s, the regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune.

“Thereafter, from the mid-1970s through the 1980s, using complex algorithms to account for variations in gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth’s shape, she programmed an IBM 7030 ‘Stretch’ computer to deliver increasingly refined calculations for an extremely accurate geodetic Earth model, a geoid, optimised for what ultimately became the GPS orbit.”

But in addition to her technical achievements, West will also be remembered as a trailblazer for black American women in an age when so much was denied to them.

Growing up in a time and in a place in the American South where black women were usually prevented from obtaining a tertiary education, West went on to become a renowned mathematician and computer programmer.

“Her contributions, often conducted behind the scenes, have had a lasting and global impact,” said Makola M. Abdullah, President of Virginia State University, where West obtained two of her degrees.

“Dr West will be remembered not only for her groundbreaking work in science and technology but also for the example she set for generations of students, especially those from historically underrepresented communities.”