Mary Deconge

Mary Lovenia DeConge (born October 3, 1933 in Baton Rouge , Louisiana ) is an American mathematician, university professor and former nun in the Holy Order of the Sisters of Saint Francis.

life and work

DeConge was born the seventh of nine children of Adina Rodney DeConge and Alphonse Frank DeConge in Wickliff, a settlement near Baton Rouge. Her parents spoke French and a little English. After attending separate schools in Louisiana , she joined the Sisters of the Holy Family (Louisiana) at 16 and became sister Mary Sylvester in the Holy Order of the Sisters of Saint Francis in 1957. Although she had no college education, she taught in elementary schools in the dioceses of Baton Rouge and Lafayette from 1952 to 1955. In 1959 she earned her bachelor's degrees in mathematics and French from Seton Hill College in Greensburg, Pennsylvania , and then taught mathematics and French at Holy Ghost High School in Opelousas , Louisiana. In 1961, she received an award from the National Science Foundation for a master’s degree in math and French, which she earned from Louisiana State University in 1962 . That year she began teaching math at Delille Junior College. From 1964 to 1968 she attended St. Louis University , where she did her doctorate in mathematics with a minor in French under Raymond William Freese with the dissertation: 2-Normed Lattices and 2-Metric Spaces. Upon graduation, she became an assistant professor of mathematics at Loyola University New Orleans . In 1971 she moved to Southern University as an associate professor of mathematics . In 1976 she was diagnosed with an immune system disease, which led to her decision to leave her order. In 1982 she was promoted to Professor of Mathematics at Southern University. In 1983 she married DeConge Roy Watson Sr. and called herself Dr. Lovenia DeConge-Watson. From 1986 to 1995 she was Professor of Mathematics at Southern University, and from 1993 to 2003 she was the director of Modeling Integrated Mathematical Experiences (MIME), a National Science Foundation project at Southern University. MIME was funded by a $ 10,000,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. From 1995 to 1998 she directed the Center for Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology at Southern University and the A&M College System. In 1990 she was awarded the Outstanding Chair and Department of the Year Award from Southern University and in 1996 the Outstanding Graduate Award from St. Louis University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She retired in 2004.

literature

Sammons, Vivian Ovelton: Blacks in Science and Medicine, Hemisphere, 1990.
Spangenburg, Ray; Kit Moser: African Americans in Science, Math, and Invention: A to Z of African Americans, Facts on File, 2003.
Warren, Wini: Black Women Scientists in the United States (Race, Gender, and Science), Indiana University Press, 2000.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Deconge, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	DeConge, Mary Sylvester
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	October 3, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Baton Rouge