Writer, researcher and entrepreneur Margot Lee Shetterly will deliver the University of Delaware’s annual Louis L. Redding Lecture at 6 p.m., Monday, Oct. 23, in Mitchell Hall on the Newark campus.

Shetterly, the author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, was originally scheduled to present the Redding Lecture at UD on March 14, but the program was postponed because of snow.

Tickets for the talk are free, but must be picked up in advance from the Bob Carpenter Center box office or the Trabant University Center box office. Tickets will be available at the box offices for members of the UD community from Sept. 11-22. If tickets remain, they will be available to the public at the box offices beginning Sept. 25.

Shetterly’s book was turned into the 2016 Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures, starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst and Kevin Costner. 

In her Oct. 23 talk, she will discuss race, gender, science and the history of technology and will show the surprising ways that women and people of color have contributed to American innovation while pursuing the American dream.

Shetterly is also the founder of the Human Computer Project, a digital archive of the stories of NASA’s African-American “Human Computers” whose work tipped the balance in favor of the United States in World War II, the Cold War and the Space Race.

Shetterly’s father was among the early generation of black NASA engineers and scientists, and she had direct access to NASA executives and the women featured in the book. She grew up around the historically black Hampton College, where the women in Hidden Figures studied.

In addition to Shetterly’s lecture, the University will recognize the recipients of the Louis L. Redding Diversity Award and the Louis L. Redding Scholar Award at the event. More information about the awards and the nomination process is available on the University’s diversity website.

The Louis L. Redding lecture honors the late civil rights pioneer, a prominent lawyer in Wilmington, Delaware, whose work led to educational opportunities for African American students in the state and nation. In 2013, the University dedicated a new residence hall named in his honor.