Monday, November 24, 2008

Congrats to Mary Hopkins



Some of you might ask, "who is Mary Hopkins?" Well, Mary Hopkins is the first black woman to earn a doctorate in math from Florida Atlantic University, and only the third among all state universities since at least 1990.

When told of her pending place in FAU's record books, she said she was "kind of aware of it" - a modesty that extends to her assessment of her algebraic ability.

"I just had very encouraging teachers," said Hopkins, who spent a full hour last week working out a lengthy math question in front of her classmates and professors.

I often wonder why positive news like this does not make it in the front pages of our media. Instead we are graced by "stereotypical" news about African Americans that have brought now our community.

This woman represents a strong set of black women who are not only entered into a Mathematical field (once only recognized as a male academic achievement) but who is encouraging and mentoring other young women in this field.

For more on Ms Hopkins achievements CLICK HERE <------



3 comments:

SjP said...

Congrats to Dr. Hopkins!! Ajuan! I'm sure she would be delighted and more than happy to share in her "Black Firsts" series. Since "they won't" we got to spread the good news!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting that article about me. I am happy that people are interested in black female mathematicians! :)
Mary

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this. This is great info. Congratulations to Dr. Hopkins! :-)