Evelyn Boyd Granville

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Evelyn Boyd Granville (born May 1, 1924 in Washington, DC ) was the second African American woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics from a US university. She acquired this from Yale University in 1949 . She had previously attended Smith College . She did pioneering work in the field of data processing .

life and career

Evelyn Boyd was born in Washington, DC; her father worked odd jobs because of the Great Depression and left her mother when Boyd was little. Boyd and her older sister were raised by their mother and aunt, both of whom worked in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing . She was a valedictorian at Dunbar High School, which at the time was a segregated but academically competitive school for black students in Washington.

With financial support from her aunt and a small partial scholarship from Phi Delta Kappa , Boyd entered Smith College in the fall of 1941. She studied mathematics and physics, but was also very interested in astronomy. She was elected to “Phi Beta Kappa” and “Sigma Xi” and graduated with honors in 1945. Encouraged by a scholarship from Smith College's Smith Student Aid Society, she applied for degrees in mathematics and was accepted by both Yale University and the University of Michigan . Because of the financial support offered, she chose Yale. There she studied functional analysis under Einar Hille and received her doctorate in 1949. Her dissertation is entitled "On Laguerre Series in the Complex Domain".

After graduation, Boyd attended the New York University Institute for Mathematics, where he researched and taught. She then took up a teaching position in 1950 at Fisk University , a college for black students in Nashville . At the time, more prestigious jobs were not available for black women. Two of her students there, Vivienne Malone-Mayes and Etta Zuber Falconer , did a PhD in mathematics. In 1952 she left the academic world and returned to Washington with a position at Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories (later: Harry Diamond Laboratories ). In January 1956 she switched to IBM as a computer programmer . When IBM got a NASA contract, she moved to the Vanguard Computing Center in Washington, DC

After three years in New York City, Boyd moved to Los Angeles in 1960 after marrying Reverend G. Mansfield Collins. There she worked for the US Space Technology Laboratories, from which the North American Aviation Space and Information Systems Division emerged in 1962. She worked on various projects for the Apollo program , including celestial mechanics , flight path calculation and "digital computer techniques".

Due to a restructuring at IBM, she had to leave her position there and in 1967 took up a position as a full professor of mathematics at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). After retiring from CSULA in 1984, she taught at Texas College in Tyler, Texas for four years , then moved to the University of Texas at Tyler as Sam A. Lindsey Professor of Mathematics in 1990 . There she developed programs to enrich elementary school mathematics. Granville has been a strong advocate for women's technical education since 1967.

Experience of discrimination

In 1951, Granville and two African American colleagues were denied entry to a regional Mathematical Association of America (MAA) meeting because it was held in a "whites only" hotel. The MAA and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) then, under pressure from Lee Lorch, changed their practices to improve their inclusiveness.

Personal life

Boyd married Reverend Gamaliel Mansfield Collins in 1960. In 1967, Boyd and Collins divorced. In 1970 she married the realtor Edward V. Granville. The two moved to Tyler, Texas in 1984.

Awards and honors

  • In 1989 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Smith College, the first time an American institution had awarded an African-American mathematician.
  • 1990-1991 she was appointed to the Sam A. Lindsey Chair at the University of Texas at Tyler.
  • In 1998, Granville was honored by the National Academy of Engineering .
  • In 1999 she was accepted into the Portrait Collection of African-Americans in Science by the National Academy of Sciences .
  • In 2000 she received the Wilbur Cross Medal , the highest honor awarded by the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association.
  • In 2001 it was quoted by the Virginia Senate in Joiont Resolution No. 377, Designating February 25 as "African-American Scientist and Inventor Day," making February 25 the "Day of African-American Scientists and Inventors ."
  • In 2006 she received an honorary degree from Spelman College .
  • In 2016 she was named one of the “four giants of women’s contributions to science and technology” by the “Mount Codemore” initiative of the technology company New Relic .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 10 Famous Women in Tech History. In: Dice Insights. March 14, 2016, accessed August 2, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b c d e John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Evelyn Boyd Granville. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Scott W. Williams: Black Women in Mathematics: Evelyn Boyd Granville. In: Mathematics Department, State University of New York at Buffalo. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  4. ^ Neil Schlager, Josh Lauer: Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery . Ed .: Gale Group. 2001, ISBN 978-0-7876-3933-4 , Evelyn Boyd Granville ( highbeam.com ). Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  5. ^ Robert A. Nowlan: Masters of Mathematics: The Problems They Solved, Why These Are Important, and What You Should Know about Them . Ed .: Springer. 2017, ISBN 978-94-6300-893-8 , pp. 453 ( google.de ): "Granville [contributed] her expertise in the field of computer science during its pioneer years."
  6. ^ Marshall Cavendish (Ed.): Inventors and Inventions, Volume 2 . 2008, ISBN 978-0-7614-7764-8 , pp. 343 ( google.de ): "During the 1960s, perhaps the greatest achievement in computing was guiding Apollo space rockets to the moon. Some of the important Apollo programs were written by Elizabeth Boyd Granville (1924-). "
  7. ^ Smith E-News 2006. In: Smith College . 2006, accessed on August 2, 2019 : "[Granville has] long been a pioneer in applied mathematics and computer technology, having joined the staff of IBM in 1956 to work on projects for NASA."
  8. ↑ James H. Kessler: Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century . Ed .: Greenwood Publishing Group. 1996, ISBN 978-0-89774-955-8 , pp. 130 ( google.de ): "[At] the Space Technology Laboratories in Los Angeles, [Granville] continued her pioneering work on orbit computations for manned space vehicles."
  9. ↑ Annabel Beckenham: A Woman's Place in Cyberspace: critical analysis of discourse, purpose and practice with regard to women and new communication technologies. (Thesis) . Ed .: University of Canberra. January 2001 ( edu.au [PDF]): "[The Ada Project,] originally developed at Yale University, is designed to serve as a clearing house for information and resources related to women and computing. Given its aim and its authority, it is telling that the site lists precisely twelve women as 'pioneering women of computing'. They are in order of appearance; Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace (1815–1852), Edith Clarke (1883–1959), Rosa Peter (1905–1977), Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992), Alexandra Illmer Forsythe (1918–1980), Evelyn Boyd Granville , Margaret R. Fox, Erna Schneider Hoover, Kay McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Alice Burks, Adele Goldstine, and Joan Margaret Winters. "
  10. ^ Newsletter of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan Summer 2001. (PDF) In: University of Michigan. 2001, accessed on August 2, 2019 : “At IBM, Dr. Granville played an exciting and fundamental role in the dawn of the computer age, especially as it was being applied to celestial mechanics. For example, she was part of the team of scientists responsible for writing the computer programs that tracked the paths of vehicles in space on NASA's Project Vanguard and Project Mercury. "
  11. ↑ a b c d Sibřina Collins: African-American Women & the Space Race. June 13, 2016, accessed on August 2, 2019 : “Another groundbreaker is Dr. Evelyn Boyd Granville, a mathematician who worked on orbit computations and computer procedures for three space-related projects - Project Vanguard (originally managed by the Naval Research Laboratory and later transferred to NASA); Project Mercury (the nation's first effort to put a man in space); and the program that eventually put a man on the moon, Project Apollo. "
  12. ↑ Mirjana Ivanović, Zoran Putnik, Anja Šišarica, Zoran Budimac: A Note on Performance and Satisfaction of Female Students Studying Computer Science . In: Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences . tape 9 , no. 1 , 2010, p. 32–41 , doi : 10.11120 / ital.2010.09010032 : "Another important figure of that time was Evelyn Granville, a pioneer in information technology who began her career in academia, went on to programming challenges at IBM and ultimately worked on the NASA space program before returning to teach others. "
  13. ↑ Evelyn Boyd Granville in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / id used
  14. ^ Evelyn Boyd Granville: My Life as a Mathematician. In: Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 1989, accessed August 2, 2019 .
  15. ^ Ray Spangenburg, Diane Moser, Douglas Long: African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention . Ed .: Infobase Publishing. 2003, ISBN 978-1-4381-0774-5 , pp. 97 f . ( google.de ).
  16. ↑ Media Highlights . In: The College Mathematics Journal . tape 42 , no. 2 , March 2011, p. 163–172 , doi : 10.4169 / college.math.j.42.2.163 , JSTOR : 10.4169 / college.math.j.42.2.163 .
  17. ^ Granville, Evelyn Boyd (1924-); The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. In: blackpast.org. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  18. ^ Smith College: Dr. Evelyn Boyd Granville '45 ( November 1, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed August 2, 2019
  19. ^ Smith History: Honorary Degrees ( November 1, 2014 memento in the Internet Archive ), accessed August 2, 2019
  20. ^ Ray Spangenburg, Diane Moser, Douglas Long: African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention . Ed .: Infobase Publishing. 2003, ISBN 978-1-4381-0774-5 , pp. 98 f . ( google.de ).
  21. ^ Academy Honors Three During African American History Month. In: NAE. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  22. ^ New Pittsburgh Courier: Pioneer in science: Evelyn Granville ( Memento of March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ^ Yale Bulletin and Calendar - News. In: Archives.news.yale.edu. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  24. ↑ 2001 SESSION SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 377: Designating February 25 as "African-American Scientist and Inventor Day." In: Lis.virginia.gov. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  25. ^ Spelman College: Honorary Degree Recipients, 1977 – Present. (PDF) In: Spelman.edu. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  26. ^ Robyn Jordan: 'Mount Codemore' Honors Four Women Technology Titans. In: blog.newrelic.com. April 26, 2016, accessed August 2, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Granville, Evelyn Boyd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Granville, Evelyn B .; Evelyn Boyd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician and computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC