Christine Darden. Dr. Christine Darden (born September 10, 1942) is an American mathematician, data analyst, and aeronautical engineer who devoted her 40-year career in aerodynamics to researching sonic booms at NASA. She was the first African-American woman at NASA's Langley Research Center to be promoted into senior executive service. Darden is one of the women scientists featured in Hidden Figures, a book by Margo Lee Shetterly published in 2016.