Black Mathematicians of the Diaspora

[Brainiac2]

Who are the greatest Black Mathematicians?

When he was 22, David Blackwell earned a Ph.D.(University of Illinois, 1941) within 5 years of high school. As only Black institutions with very high teaching loads (20 to 30 hours per week as opposed to the standard 6 hours of today) would hire him, one would think his early career would lag somewhat. Although his work caught the eye of great mathematicians of the time, it took another 13 years and 20 papers before Blackwell was hired permanently at a research oriented institution, the University of California at Berkeley. By the time he was 40 (in 1959), David Blackwell had accomplished that which most mathematicians would consider a lifetime's work, he had written a book considered a classic, published 35 papers (three in the Annals of Mathematics), and had been an invited speaker all over the world. In 1965 he became the first African American named to the National Academy of Sciences (he is still the only Black mathematician to be so honored). In 1979 Blackwell won the von Neumann Theory Prize (the Operations Research Society of America). Though most (but not all) of Blackwell's work was in Statistics, his work exhibits a strong "theoretical"mathema tics background.

In 2002, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley and Cornell University has established the Blackwell-Tapia Award in honor of David Blackwell and Richard A. Tapia, distinguished mathematical scientists who have been inspirations to more than a generation of African American and Hispanic American students and professionals in the mathematical sciences. Wilkins: J. Ernest Wilkins was a contemporary of David Blackwell, though his

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/madgreatest.h...

[see-n-say]

Hm, yes 1941 would date this naegro properly.

You really take pause at parading pre-60s naegros. There are many people who see a clear line in the sand between them and the post-civil-rights decadence.

[Brainiac2]

see-n-say wrote:

Hm, yes 1941 would date this naegro properly.
You really take pause at parading pre-60s naegros. There are many people who see a clear line in the sand between them and the post-civil-rights decadence.

I didn't look at the date. I looked at the accomplishment. Why would his accomplishment be dimininished by what transpired after he died or by what other people do?

[see-n-say]

Brainiac2 wrote:

<quoted text>
I didn't look at the date. I looked at the accomplishment. Why would his accomplishment be dimininished by what transpired after he died or by what other people do?

His accomplishments are hardly diminished. However, he came from a time when naegros required more than the most base ability to reach any level of academia. His relevance as an "inspiration" to modern naegros is dubious.

[Brainiac2]

see-n-say wrote:

<quoted text>
His accomplishments are hardly diminished. However, he came from a time when naegros required more than the most base ability to reach any level of academia. His relevance as an "inspiration" to modern naegros is dubious.

I guess we disagree on that point. I think that the story of the discrimination he faced and overcame via sheer willplwer is indeed very relevant to any person living in a racist society today.

[Brainiac2]

Ezeilo: Another Nigerian, James Ezeilo made an enormous contribution. This 1958 Ph.D.(University of Cambridge) has also received numerous honorary doctorates. His early research deals mainly with the problem of stability, boundedness, and convergence of solutions of third order ordinary differential equations.

Apart from extending known results and techniques to higher order equations, the main thrust of his work was the construction of Lyapunov-like functions, which he did elegantly and used to study the qualitative properties of solutions.

In addition he was a pioneer in the use of Leray-Schauder degree type arguments to obtain existence results for periodic solutions of ordinary differential equations. Finally, with two other mathematicians, Ezeilo built mathematics to the fine degree it exists in Nigeria today serving the entire African continent quite well.

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Ronald E. Mickens at Historically Black Clark-Atlanta University straddles two fields, Mathematics and Physics, and from 1970 to 1999,

Dr. Mickens published over 200 papers and 5 books. Recently, Mickens was honored with an election to Fellowship in the American Physical Society, a rare position limited to .5% of the membership of the society. With all of this Mickens has worked directly at the effort to bring African Americans into Physics and to improve Physics in Africa.

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/madgreatest.h ...

[see-n-say]

Brainiac2 wrote:

<quoted text>
I guess we disagree on that point. I think that the story of the discrimination he faced and overcame via sheer willplwer is indeed very relevant to any person living in a racist society today.

Fair enough. I must point out, however, that the trials he faced occurred well before naegros were spoon-fed and coddled through academia. He was true flotsam from the naegro horde.

[Bill]

see-n-say wrote:

<quoted text>
Fair enough. I must point out, however, that the trials he faced occurred well before naegros were spoon-fed and coddled through academia. He was true flotsam from the naegro horde.

Anyone who can crash through all those discriminatory racist invicible ceilings are hardly comparable to flotsam. I would compare him more to a juggernaut.

[Bill]

Anyone who can crash through all those discriminatory racist invicible ceilings is hardly comparable to flotsam. I would compare him more to a juggernaut.

[see-n-say]

Bill. Quit following me.

I really doubt such a person "crashed" through anything. His was surely a life of pensive restlessness and carefully exploited opportunity.

And yes, he was flotsam. Do you know what the word means?

[Cogito Ergo Sum]

Interesting decent thread!

[KemiSeba]

Let's hope it remains that way