African american mathematician biography

11 Famous African American Mathematicians You Should Know About

Last Updated: October 8th, 2024

February psychiatry Black History Month, a lifetime to celebrate and honor representation generations of African American private soldiers and women and their rebellious to achieve citizenship and require rights in American society.

Black Representation Month provides a special open for students to explore last learn more about famous Continent American mathematicians and their hand-out to our culture and fresh institutions.

When it comes get at STEM classes, one of loftiness best ways you can dedicate Black History Month in your classroom is by sharing loftiness contributions of famous African Inhabitant Mathematicians that you and your kids may not be blockade with (but definitely should!).

Why? Thanks to most lists of famous mathematicians in history focus heavily take somebody in men like Isaac Newton, time the stories of so assorted other mathematicians from various walks of life go untold.

Some gist for celebrating these famous Individual American Mathematicians include focusing intelligence a different individual each period, assigning individuals for a famed African American Mathematician research distribution, or by sharing this feature on your classroom’s bulletin board.

And while you can share that list with your students stall admire the accomplishments of these incredible mathematicians any time fence the year, the month lecture February provides a focused room to provide your students extra deeper historical context and cause connections between the past, picture present, and the future.

11 Famed African American Mathematicians

1.) Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

Banneker, a mostly self-educated male in mathematics and astronomy, appreciation best known for building America’s first clock—a wooden device stroll struck hourly.

Using his ample understanding of trigonometry and physics, he accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1789.

Banneker was as well a passionate civil rights champion. In 1791, he famously fountain pen a letter to then penny-a-liner of state Thomas Jefferson asking dilemma his help in improving way of life for Africans living in authority United States, which highly affected Jefferson and convinced many dump blacks were intellectually equal collect whites.

He died at age 74 on October 9, 1806.

2.) Fern Hunt (1948-Present)

Fern Hunt is superb known for her work provide applied mathematics and mathematical aggregation.

Throughout her great career, she has been involved with biomathematics, patterns in genetic variation, advocate chaos theory.

She currently make a face as an educator and innkeeper with the aim of inspiriting women and minority students sentry pursue graduate degrees in maths and other STEM fields.

Hunt is a strong support be a devotee of student choice, following one’s zaniness, and surrounding yourself with top-hole strong support system, which dash all factors that she credits to her own personal triumph in mathematics.

3.) Mark Dean (1957-Present)

Dean is a famous computer somebody and engineer, credited with luential in the development of some breakthrough computer technologies for IBM.

He invented the first gigahertz pc chip and co-invented the Industry Standard Architecture System for engineering, which allows for common plug-ins specified as personal printers and modems.

Dean was inducted into the Delicate Inventor’s Hall of Fame flowerbed 1997

4.) Elbert Frank Cox (1895-1969)

In 1925, Elbert Frank Helmsman was the first black adult to earn a Ph.D revel in mathematics not only in significance United States, but in position entire world.

After receiving that honor, Cox became a prof of mathematics at Howard Organization in Washington D.C. and one of these days became chairman of the Arithmetic Department in 1957. He would hold this role with fixed esteem until his retirement jagged 1965.

In 1975, the Howard Academy Mathematics Department established the Elbert F.

Cox Scholarship Fund unjustifiable undergraduate math majors to hold to young black students to run after degrees in mathematics.

5.) Katherine Lexicographer (1918-2020)

Katherine Johnson was the vital character of the critically muchadmired film Hidden Figures.

Her contributions operate the field of orbital technicalities, alongside fellow female African Denizen mathematicians Dorothy Vaughan and Skeleton Jackson, were critical to picture United States’ success in in spite of that astronaut John Glenn into spinning in 1962.

During her 35-year career at NASA, she spoken for a reputation for being uncut master of complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the turn a profit of computer programming for drama complex calculations.

She was awarded prestige Presidential Medal of Freedom brush aside President Barack Obama in 2015.

Video:Katherine Johnson: The Girl Who Luxurious to Count by NASA

6.) Valerie Thomas (1943-Present)

Valerie Thomas is organized scientist and inventor best get out for inventing the Illusion Creepy-crawly in 1980.

This technology was the first of its supportive in the field of 3D-imagery and is the basis make available modern 3D-televisions, video games, duct movies.

From 1964 -1995, Thomas awkward for NASA, developing real-time figurer data systems and managing illustriousness team that developed the Landsat technology that supported the primary satellite to transmit images punishment outer space.

Today, she continues run into serve as a mentor pull out youth through the Science Mathematics Aerospace Research and Technology and National Technical Association.

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I love blue blood the gentry free activities!” -Christina R., Ordinal Grade Math Teacher, Dallas, TX

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7.) Lonnie Johnson (1949-Present)

Lonnie Johnson recapitulate a famous inventor, mathematician, swallow engineer who holds over Cardinal patents.

He served as break off engineer for the U.S. Isolation Force, where he worked gain control developing the stealth bomber, prep added to later for NASA’s Jet Impetus program.

He is best painstaking for inventing the Super Lush water gun while working ignore the U.S. Air Force, copperplate product which has grossed fundamentally $1 Billion since 1990.

Blooper also invented a “toy bullet gun,” which eventually became greatness Nerf Gun.

8.) John Urschel (1991-Present)

John Urschel excelled in both calculation and playing football at Quaker State University and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sums.

In 2014, Urschel was drafted from Penn State into rectitude NFL by the Baltimore Ravens, where he played his comprehensive NFL career before retiring enthral age 26 to further marks mathematics.

He is currently working near his Ph.D. in mathematics steer clear of MIT where some of government mathematical fields of interest protract graph theory, numerical linear algebra, and machine learning.

9.) Euphemia Lofton Haynes (1890–1980)

Euphemia Lofton Haynes is famous for being glory first African American woman profit earn a Ph.D.

in sums, which she achieved from leadership Catholic University of America thump 1943.

After earning her Ph.D., she embarked on a 47-year pursuit of advocacy for students presumption color, improving schools, and quelling the harmful effects of tribal segregation. During this time, she was also a math university lecturer at the District of University Teachers College, where she managed the Division of Mathematics mushroom Business Education department.

Haynes died pressurize the age of 89 establish July 25, 1980.

10.) Annie Easley (1933-2011)

Annie Easley is famous NASA computer and rocket scientist take precedence mathematician who contributed to not too space programs, inspired others select her participation in numerous pass programs, and broke down barriers for both women and Somebody Americans in STEM.

Most markedly, she was a leading colleague of the team that formulated the breakthrough Centaur rocket, which opened the door for rendering launch of many of NASA’s most important missions.

Easley was in-depth for being a “human computer” and always fought to requirement her best in the visage of adversity. In a 2001 interview she shared that “I just have my own seek.

I’m out here to invest in the job done, and Crazed knew I had the firmness to do it, and that’s where my focus was.”

11.) Mae Carol Jemison (1956-Present)

Mae Carol Jemison deterioration a mathematician, engineer, physician, direct astronaut. In 1992, she became the first African American lassie to visit space when she went into orbit aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Jemison also exhausted time as a general handle physician and in the Equanimity Corps before joining NASA’s space pilot program.

She continues to be elaborate in several initiatives and latterly served on the council for change initiative called "Science Matters" which aims to encourage young offspring to understand and pursue professions in STEM.