What is the name of a good mathematician who was or is Black or a woman?
Petters: Belize born American citizen Arlie Petters, the most senior of the group is a member of Duke University’s Bass Fellows. He is Full Professor of Mathematics and of Physics (their first tenured Black professor in the sciences – congratulations Duke). He is chiefly interested in the mathematical theory of gravitational lensing and related areas (differential geometry, singularity theory, general relativity, Astrophysics). Though Petters received his Ph.D. about ten years ago, he has published 30 papers and a book, chiefly in the area Gravitational Lensing. Petters’s book on Gravitational Lensing is considered a tour de force in mathematical physics. In 1998, Petters was awarded the most prestigious award for “young” mathematicians, the three year Sloan Research Fellowship. In 2002, he was recipient of the first Blackwell-Tapia Prize. K. Okikiolu: Born to Nigerian and British parents, but educated in the U.S., Katherine Okikiolu (was once on Princeton’s faculty) received special d
