Evelyn Boyd Granville (born May 1, 1924) was the second African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from an American university; she earned it in 1949 from Yale University. She graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1945.. She performed pioneering work in the field of computing.

Education

Evelyn Boyd was born in Washington, D.C.; her father worked odd jobs due to the

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but separated from her mother when Boyd was young. Boyd and her older sister were raised by her mother and aunt, who both worked at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. She was valedictorian at Dunbar High School, which at that 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

in the fall of 1941. She majored in mathematics and physics, but also took a keen interest in astronomy. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and to Sigma Xi and graduated summa cum laude in 1945. Encouraged by a graduate scholarship from the Smith Student Aid Society of Smith College, she applied to graduate programs in mathematics and was accepted by both Yale University and the University of Michigan; she chose Yale because of the financial aid they offered. There she studied functional analysis under the supervision of

Einar Hille Carl Einar Hille (28 June 1894 – 12 February 1980) was an American mathematics professor and scholar. Hille authored or coauthored twelve mathematical books and a number of mathematical papers. Early life and education Hille was born in New Y ...

, finishing her doctorate in 1949. Her dissertation was "On Laguerre Series in the Complex Domain".

Career

Following graduate school, Boyd went to New York University Institute for Mathematics and performed research and teaching there. After, in 1950, she took a teaching position at

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

, a college for black students in Nashville, Tennessee (more prestigious postings being unavailable to black women). Two of her students there,

Vivienne Malone-Mayes Vivienne Lucille Malone-Mayes (February 10, 1932 – June 9, 1995) was an American mathematician and professor. Malone-Mayes studied properties of functions, as well as methods of teaching mathematics.Etta Zuber Falconer, went on to earn doctorates in mathematics of their own. But by 1952 she left academia and returned to Washington with a position at the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories. In January 1956, she moved to IBM as a

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

; when IBM received a NASA contract, she moved to Vanguard Computing Center in Washington, D.C. Boyd moved from Washington to New York City in 1957. In 1960, after marrying Reverend G. Mansfield Collins, Boyd moved to Los Angeles. There she worked for the U.S. Space Technology Laboratories, which became the North American Aviation Space and Information Systems Division in 1962. She worked on various projects for the Apollo program, including celestial mechanics, trajectory computation, and "digital computer techniques". Forced to move because of a restructuring at IBM, she took a position at California State University, Los Angeles in 1967 as a full professor of mathematics. After retiring from CSULA in 1984 she taught at

Texas College Texas College is a private, historically black Christian Methodist Episcopal college in Tyler, Texas. It is affiliated with the United Negro College Fund. It was founded in 1894 by a group of ministers affiliated with the Christian Methodist Epi ...

in Tyler, Texas for four years, and then in 1990 joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Tyler as the Sam A. Lindsey Professor of mathematics. There she developed elementary school math enrichment programs. Since 1967, Granville has remained a strong advocate for women's education in tech.

Experience of discrimination

In 1951 there was a south-eastern sectional meeting of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

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. The citation delivered at the 2007 MAA awards presentation, where

Lee Lorch Lee Alexander Lorch (September 20, 1915 – February 28, 2014) was an American mathematician, early civil rights activist, and communist. His leadership in the campaign to desegregate Stuyvesant Town, a large housing development on the East Side o ...

received a standing ovation, recorded that: :"''

, the chair of the mathematics department at

, and three Black colleagues, Evelyn Boyd (now Granville), Walter Brown, and H. M. Holloway came to the meeting and were able to attend the scientific sessions. However, the organizer for the closing banquet refused to honor the reservations of these four mathematicians. (Letters in Science, August 10, 1951, pp. 161–162 spell out the details). Lorch and his colleagues wrote to the governing bodies of the

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions * A ...

and MAA seeking bylaws against discrimination. Bylaws were not changed, but non-discriminatory policies were established and have been strictly observed since then.''"MAA citation
for Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Distinguished Service to Mathematics Award.

Personal life

Boyd married Reverend Gamaliele Mansifeld Collins in 1961. In 1967, Boyd and Collins divorced. She married

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Edward V. Granville in 1970. The two moved to Tyler, Texas in 1983.

Awards and honors

In 1989, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Smith College, the first one given by an American institution to an African-American woman mathematician. She was appointed to the Sam A. Lindsey Chair of the University of Texas at Tyler (1990-1991). In 1998, Granville was honoured by the National Academy of Engineering. In 1999, the United States National Academy of Sciences inducted her into its Portrait Collection of African-Americans in Science. In 2000, she was awarded the

Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal The Wilbur Cross Medal, or Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal for Alumni Achievement, is an award by the Yale University Graduate School Alumni Association to recognize "...distinguished achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and p ...

, the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association's highest honour. In 2001, she was cited in the Virginia state senate's Joint Resolution No. 377, ''Designating February 25 as "African-American Scientist and Inventor Day."'' In 2006 she was awarded an honorary degree by Spelman College. In 2016, technology firm New Relic's ''Mount Codemore'' initiative named her as one of "four giants of women’s contributions to science and technology". In 2019, she was recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month Honoree.

References

External links

Evelyn Granville's oral history video excerpts
at The National Visionary Leadership Project
Evelyn Boyd Granville Papers
in the Sophia Smith Collection, SSC-MS-00747, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts {{DEFAULTSORT:Granville, Evelyn Boyd American computer scientists 1924 births Living people American women academics African-American academics African-American women academics American women computer scientists American women mathematicians California State University, Los Angeles faculty University of Texas at Tyler faculty IBM employees Smith College alumni Yale University alumni 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American scientists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century women mathematicians Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.) alumni 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women