Session Chair:
John Belcher, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University
John Belcher earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics at Brown University
in 1976, in 1998 received a Master of Education, with a concentration in Mathematics Education, from the
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
and is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Mathematics at Boston
University. John is a
published
mathe -
musician
as well as a cofounder of
CrossPulse Consultants, an
organization that provides educational and other resources
to the African-American community.
Keynote Speaker:
Donald F. St. Mary is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics
at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Professor St. Mary earned
his Ph.D. degree in 1968 on a topic in ordinary differential equations
and has published and lectured broadly in that area and the areas of
numerical solutions of partial differential equations and applied
mathematics. His research was extensively supported by the National
Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. Professor
St. Mary served as the Department Head of the Department of
Mathematics at the University during the years 1994-2002.
Professor St. Mary was an enthusiastic teacher of courses throughout
the mathematics curriculum - remedial through Ph.D. dissertation
direction. He has been extensively involved in minority student
teaching and mentoring related activities, for example, designed and
taught a two-week course, ``What is Calculus About?'', to sophomore
and junior level minority high school students during many summers;
taught algebra and trigonometry followed by first-semester
calculus to a group of students in an academic support
program--Minority Engineering Program; created and
organized the Science Enrichment Program at the University of
Massachusetts, a 5-week residential program designed to enrich
minority high school students' science experiences (1992-1997 - funded
by the National Cancer Institute at $3M).
Professor St. Mary was awarded a "Distinguished Scholar Designee" at
the Third Annual Celebration of Black Scholarship in New England,
Boston, 1993. He gave the first Mathematical Association of America -
National Association of Mathematics David Blackwell Lecture in 1995
following the lecture given by Dr. Blackwell in 1994. Professor
St. Mary served for five years on the Committee on Equal Opportunities
in Science and Engineering a Congressionally mandated committee of the
National Science Foundation. He has served on numerous major
committees at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
A tribute to his contributions is posted
at the site
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora.
At the symposium, we will be privileged to hear him offer:
"Reflections on becoming a mathematician - a personal perspective"
Abstract
An African American tells about how he fell in love with solving
certain kinds of problems in high school and ended up becoming a
mathematician; what life was like for him "way back when", and how it
all ended up - gloriously. Some statistics on minority persons in
mathematics and science are given. We also discuss the numerous
benefits and great opportunities that currently exist for minority
students who choose to study mathematics.