Annie Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was an African American computer scientist and mathematician who made critical contributions to NASA's rocket systems and energy technologies.

Easley's early work involved running simulations at NASA's Plum Brook Reactor Facility and studying the effects of rocket launches on earth's ozone layer.

She would also work on developing code used in researching and analyzing alternative power technologies like batteries and fuel systems, which would be later used in hybrid vehicles and NASA's Centaur upper-stage rocket.

Annie Easley was born to Bud and Willie (née Sims) McCrory in Birmingham, Alabama.

[6][7] In 1955, Easley read a story in a local newspaper about twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as "computers".

Her computer applications have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer the improvement over commercially available technologies.

Following the energy crisis of the late 1970s, Easley studied the economic advantages of co-generating power plants that obtained byproducts from coal and steam.

[13] After retiring in 1989, she remained an active participant in the Speaker's Bureau and the Business & Professional Women's association.

[5][9] Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe, the launcher of which had the Centaur as its upper stage.

[1][2] A crater spanning five-and-a-half miles on the moon was named Easley in memory of her by the International Astronomical Union on February 1, 2021.

As part of the Jim Crow laws that maintained racial inequality, African Americans were required to pass a literacy test and pay a poll tax in order to vote, which was outlawed in 1964 in the Twenty-fourth Amendment.

[2] In her first three years after retiring from NASA, Easley focused on volunteer work, often telling people she put more miles on her car as a retiree than as a worker.

Although she no longer tutored, she expressed that she was always willing to talk to students at career days and similar events if asked.