Nathaniel Dean (mathematician)

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Nathaniel Dean
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMississippi State University, Northeastern University, Vanderbilt University
Known forGraph Theory, Data Visualization, Parallel Computing
AwardsBell Labs President's Silver Award (1997)
Scientific career
FieldsApplied mathematics
InstitutionsBell Labs, Rice University, Texas Southern University, Texas State University
Thesis Contractible Edges and Conjectures about Path and Cycle Numbers (1987)
Doctoral advisorRobert Louis Hemminger

Nathaniel Dean (January 9, 1956 – January 2021[1]) was an African-American mathematician and educator who made contributions to abstract and algorithmic graph theory, as well as data visualization and parallel computing.

Education[edit]

Dean received his B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Mississippi State University in 1978. He then received his M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Northeastern University in 1983. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University in 1987, with a doctoral thesis titled "Contractible Edges and Conjectures and Path and Cycle Numbers".[2]

Scientific career[edit]

For the next eleven years, he worked at the Software Production Research Department of Bell Labs,[3] where he would author over thirty scientific publications on graph theory, graph algorithms, parallel computing, and data visualization.[4] In 1995 he posed a conjecture which led to progress on the second neighborhood problem,[5][6] which remains open as of 2020. His work on using graph theory for data mining was featured in the PBS series Life by the Numbers.[7]

In 1997 Dean received the Bell Labs President's Silver Award,[8] and shortly thereafter began a professorship at Rice University.[3] While at Rice, he supervised four Ph.D. students with thesis topics ranging from algorithmic graph theory to biological computing.[2] On January 11, 2001, Dean was elected Vice President of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM).[9] In 2003 he moved from Rice University to Texas Southern University, where he attained the rank of full professor and would serve as chair of the mathematics department.[10][3]

Dean's departure from Texas Southern University to Texas State University was announced in a NAM newsletter in 2006.[11] Dean focused on mathematics education and outreach throughout his time at Texas State, most notably by serving as President of NAM from 2005 to 2015.[12][13] His research activities during this time include graph theory and an influential article on data visualization.[4][14] He retired from Texas State in 2016.[15]

Outreach[edit]

Dean was actively involved in mathematics education and outreach throughout his career. In addition to his involvement in the PBS series Life by the Numbers, he developed software to teach discrete mathematics at the K-12 level.[16] Much of Dean's outreach was through the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM), a nonprofit which aims to promote the mathematical development of underrepresented minorities; his involvement with NAM includes serving as Vice President (2001-2004) and President (2005-2015).

Separate from his involvement with NAM, Dean worked with the American Mathematical Society to publish two conference proceeding on African American mathematicians.[17][18] Dean also served as an Associate Editor of the Notices of the AMS from 2001 to 2006.[19]

Dean was quite involved with other professional societies in mathematics as well. He served on the Board of Governors of the Mathematical Association of America from 2005 to 2007, and served as chair of MSRI's Human Resources Advisory Committee (HRAC) from 2005 to 2007. In 2010, he gave the Pi Mu Epsilon J. Sutherland Frame Lecture on "Incomprehensibility".

Dean's fifth and final Ph.D. student graduated from Texas State University in 2010, with a thesis on secondary school mathematics pedagogy.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Nathaniel Dean". Mathematically Gifted & Black. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  2. ^ a b c "Nathaniel Dean - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". Mathematics Genealogy Project. North Dakota State University. n.d. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Williams, Scott (2008). "Nathaniel Dean - Mathematicians of the African Diaspora". Mathematicians of the African Diaspora. The Mathematics Department of The State University of New York at Buffalo. Retrieved June 10, 2020. Until 1998, Dr. Dean was a member of the Software Production Research Department of Bell Laboratories.
  4. ^ a b "Nathaniel Dean - Google Scholar Citations". Google Scholar. Google, Inc. n.d. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  5. ^ Dean, Nathaniel; Latka, Brenda J. (1995), "Squaring the tournament—an open problem", Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Computing (Boca Raton, FL, 1995), Congressus Numerantium, 109: 73–80, MR 1369296
  6. ^ Fisher, David C. (1996), "Squaring a tournament: a proof of Dean's conjecture", Journal of Graph Theory, 23 (1): 43–48, doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0118(199609)23:1<43::AID-JGT4>3.0.CO;2-K, MR 1402137
  7. ^ WQED Pittsburgh (1998). "Life by the Numbers - Information Age - A New Age". Life by the Numbers. Season 1. Episode 6. 57 minutes in. The Public Broadcasting Service. YouTube video.
  8. ^ "Personal Profile of Dr. Nathaniel Dean". Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. n.d. Retrieved June 10, 2020. In 1997 he received the President's Silver Award from Bell Laboratories.
  9. ^ Williams, Dr. Scott (Spring 2001). "Volume 32, Issue 1". N.A.M. Newsletter. The State University of New York, Buffalo: National Association of Mathematicians. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  10. ^ Williams, Dr. Scott (Spring 2003). "Volume 34, Issue 1". N.A.M. Newsletter. The State University of New York, Buffalo: National Association of Mathematicians. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  11. ^ Williams, Dr. Scott (Fall 2006). "Volume 37, Issue 1". N.A.M. Newsletter. The State University of New York, Buffalo: National Association of Mathematicians. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  12. ^ Williams, Dr. Scott (Fall 2005). "Volume 36, Issue 3". N.A.M. Newsletter. The State University of New York, Buffalo: National Association of Mathematicians. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  13. ^ Washington, Dr. Talitha (Spring 2015). "Volume 46, Issue 1". N.A.M. Newsletter. Howard University: National Association of Mathematicians. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  14. ^ Buja, Andreas; Swayne, Deborah F; Littman, Michael L; Dean, Nathaniel; Hofmann, Heike; Chen, Lisha (2008). "Data Visualization With Multidimensional Scaling". Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. 17 (2): 444–472. doi:10.1198/106186008X318440. ISSN 1061-8600. S2CID 10675294.
  15. ^ "Past Faculty : Mathematics : Texas State University". Mathematics : Texas State University. Department of Mathematics at Texas State University. n.d. Retrieved June 10, 2020. Retired Faculty. ... Nathaniel Dean: Ph.D., Vanderbilt University (1987), 2006 - 2016.
  16. ^ Rosenstein, Joseph; Franzblau, Deborah; Roberts, Fred (1997). Discrete Mathematics in the Schools. Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science. Vol. 36 (1 ed.). New Jersey: DIMACS. pp. Section 7. ISBN 978-0-8218-0448-3.
  17. ^ Dean, Nathaniel (1997). African Americans in mathematics : DIMACS workshop, June 26-28, 1996. Providence, R.I: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-0678-4. OCLC 36969771.
  18. ^ Dean, Nathaniel (1999). African-Americans in mathematics II : fourth Conference for African-American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences, June 16-19, 1998, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Providence, R.I: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-1195-5. OCLC 42683053.
  19. ^ https://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/committees/notices-past.html
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