3 African American Women x 3 Ph.D.s=
One Rare Achievement in Mathematics
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(l to r) Tasha Inniss,Sherry Scott and Kimberly Weems
PRESS RELEASE Dec. 12, 2000
[CONTACT: Lee Tune 301-405-4679 ltune@accmail.umd.edu]
COLLEGE PARK, Md. * On December21 at the University of Maryland, TashaInniss, KimberlyWeems and SherryScott will do something few other African American womenhave done * receive Ph.D.s in mathematics.
"You can count on your handthe number of African-American women today who are Ph.D.'s inMath," Inniss said. "And we all know who they are."
"These students, their workand their achievement are quite remarkable," said PatrickFitzpatrick, chair of the department of mathematics at Maryland."And its gratifying that our department is almost certainlythe first anywhere to award doctorates in math to three AfricanAmerican women at the same time."
According to Fitzpatrick, datafrom the American Math Society show that there were only 12 mathPh.D.s awarded to African Americans in the entire United Statesin 1998-99, the most recent academic year for which data are available."In addition, we have one of the top graduate programs inmathematics in the country, so earning a Ph.D. in mathematicsat Maryland is extremely challenging," he said.
Although in 1970 the Universityof Maryland awarded GenevieveKnight a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, no one has earneda Ph..D. in Mathematics until now. Inniss, Scott and Weems, arethe first African-American women to receive Ph.D.s in mathematicsfrom the university, said that the support they got from the programwas important in their success. They lauded the faculty and theopportunities available at Maryland, and commended the schoolfor welcoming them and making them feel at home from the verybeginning. "You did not come across problems at Marylandlike you could find at other schools," said Weems.
Fitzpatrick said the departmentis making a strong effort to recruit and support women and minorities."Our department currently has what is, almost certainly,the most diverse body of [math] graduate students in the country.Thirty-three percent of our 213 graduate students are women. Wehave 21 African-American and 8 Hispanic graduate students. Overthe past five years, fully 33 percent of our Ph.D.s have beenawarded to women."
In February of 2000, the QualityEducation for Minorities Network honored the University of Marylandas one of the nation's leaders in awarding doctoral degrees tominorities in the areas of mathematics, computer and physicalsciences and engineering.
Inniss, Weems and Scott said theirfamilies were a primary reason that they developed an abidinginterest in math and pursued that interest all the way to Ph.D.s.Each said that, along the way, supportive teachers also were animportant factor in their success.
Inniss, whose thesis title is"Distributed Stochastic Models for the Estimation of AirportArrival Capacity Distributions," said her mother teachessociology at Florida A & M University and strongly believesin the value of education. And she said her grandfather, a 6thgrade teacher with a master's degree from Harvard, was an inspirationand another major source of encouragement. "He taught memy multiplication tables," she said. "In fourth gradewhen I won second place in a math competition, my grandfatherwas in the front row."
"I never was given the impressionthat a woman could not or was not supposed to do math," Innisssaid. "There weremany teachers, including my grandfather,that fostered and encouraged my love in math. These teachers andmentors have influenced me to give back a little of what theyhave given me."
Weems's said the long road toher thesis, "On Robustness Against Mis-Specified Mixing Distributionand Generalized Linear Mixed Models," began as a young child,when she would play after school in the classroom of her mother,a middle school math and science teacher. "She always encouragedme to pursue my interest in these areas."
Weems said that later she drewgreat strength from African American women math professors shehad at Spelman College in Atlanta, where she received her undergraduatedegree.
"I have been fortunate tohave strong influential women in my life, many of whom are AfricanAmerican," she said. "I hope that I can be a role modelfor young girls and inspire them to pursue mathematical careers."
Scott's mother, a professor ofeducation at the University of Wisconsin, inspired her to pursuea higher education path that has now culminated in a Ph.D. thesison, "Spectral Analysis of Fractal Noise in Terms of Wiener'sGeneralized Harmonic Analysis and Wavelet Theory. "We wereall taught that the math had to be there if you wanted to succeed,"Scott said.
All three women said they findit discouraging that there are so few women and minorities intheir field and that progress in graduating more minority Ph.D.shas been so slow. "The fighting doesn't stop. You still haveto prove yourself," Scott said.
Despite these feelings, the womensay they are encouraged about the future. "You have to show'em, don't tell 'em," Inniss said. "Be that good teacherand be that good researcher."
For Weems, Scott and Inniss, "lifeafter thesis" has already begun. Each completed the requirementsfor their doctoral degrees this summer and has been working eversince. Inniss teaches at Trinity College in Washington, D.C. whereshe has been appointed as a Clare Boothe Luce Professor, and alsoconsults for the Federal Aviation Administration. Weems does "CryptonicMathematics" and signal analysis as part of a research internshipat the National Security Agency. And Scott does research and teachingas a visiting assistant professor in George Washington University'sstatistics department.
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