Freda Porter

Freda Porter (born October 14, 1957 in Lumberton , North Carolina , United States ) is an American mathematician .

life and work

Porter was born a member of the Lumbee tribe in Lumberton. In 1978 she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in applied mathematics from Pembroke State University. After completing an IBM Graduate Internship Program, she studied at North Carolina State University, where she earned a Masters in Applied Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science in 1981 . In 1991 she did her PhD with Michael Charles Reed at Duke University with the dissertation: A Numerical Study of Propagation of Singularities for Semilinear Hyperbolic Systems. She then taught mathematics at Pembroke State University, then at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where she was certified as an operator of water pollution control systems in 1998. From 1994 to 1999, she was a member of the Committee on Minority Participation of the Mathematical Association of America in Mathematics. From 1994 to 1995 she was an ASEE Faculty Fellow advisor to the Langley Research Center and advisor to the Department of Ecosystem Research of the Environmental Protection Agency in Athens, Georgia . In 1996 she was one of 20 contemporary African American, Latin American, and Native American scholars featured in the Public Broadcasting Service documentary "Break Through: The Changing Face of Science in America." Since 1997 she has served as President and CEO of Porter Scientific, Inc. in Pembroke , North Carolina , an environmental and information technology services company. From 2006 to 2013 she was trustee of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

literature

• "Program weds science, math and Native American traditions," University of North Carolina News Services, June 20, 1997.
• Robert Hawthorne, Jr., "Freda Porter-Locklear," American Indian Biographies, Harvey Markowitz, Editor, Salem Press, 1999, 274-275.

Web links

• Biography at Biography of Women Mathematicians, Agnes Scott College
• Interview with Freda Porter
• ONR Distinguished Lecture Series / Women's History Month: "They Believed They Could So They Did"
• Freda Porter in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)