Do you have mathematicians you’d like to add? Please fill out this google form and I’ll periodically add to this list!
What is the Mathematicians Project?
The Short Version:
- We as math teachers tend to only talk about white male mathematicians.
- Most of my students don’t look like that, and thus, they have few mathematical role models they can identify with.
- Take 10-15 minutes a week to research (read Wikipedia, that’s all you need) a not-old-dead-white-dude mathematician, and then take 5 minutes in class to tell your students about them. Include a picture. It’s worth it, I swear.
Here is the presentation from NCTM Regionals in Chicago
Here is a SEARCHABLE SPREADSHEET LIST of mathematicians
Explanatory Blogs
I’ve blogged at MTMS about this project in far more detail than I have here. Check out those four posts below.
Post #1 The Mathematician Project
Post #2 How to Enact the Mathematician Project
Post #3 What I Learned About My Students
Post #4 Extensions of the Mathematician Project
For the super excited, you can read the paper I wrote about the project below.
List of Mathematicians (Or use this spreadsheet)
Men (alphabetical by last name)
- Daniel Afedzi Akyeampong
- Federico Ardila
- Aryabhata
- Artur Avila (Brazilian) b. 1979
- Benjamin Banneker
- Manjul Bhargava
- Bhaskara
- David Blackwell (African American) 1919-2010
- Edward Alexander Bouchet
- Brahmagupta
- Ron Buckmire
- Rudranath Capildeo
- Jose Adem Chain (Mexican) b. 1921
- Ngô Bào Châu (Vietnamese) b. 1972
- Shiing Shen Chern (Chinese) 1911 – 2004
- Elbert Frank Cox (African American) 1895-1969
- Ismail Mustafa al-Faliki (Egyptian) 1825-1901 Very little info here. I must have gotten him from a book. I’ll let you know what that is if/when I find it again.
- Jonathan Farley
- Abraham Adolf Frankel
- Samuel Gitler Hammer
- Josephat Martin (Fanyana Mutyambizi) Harvey
- Heisuke Hironaka (Japanese) b. 1931
- Jama Musse Jama (Somali)
- Qin Jiushao
- Clifford V Johnson
- Abu Kamil
- Muhammad Al-Karaji
- Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi (Persian) c. 780-c.850
- Kunihiko Kodaira (Japanese) 1915-1997
- Victor Neumann-Lara (Mexican) 1933-2004
- Chris Matthews
- Robert Eugene Megginson (Native American) b. 1948
- Kelly Miller (African-American) 1863-1939
- Júlio César de Mello e Souza
- Herman Mena (Ecuadorian)
- Antanas Mockus
- Shigefumi Mori (Japanese) b. 1951
- Pingala
- Srinivasa Ramanujan (Indian) 1887-1920
- And another
- And again
- This could go on for a while
- There are also lots. of. books. on. him…
- John Nash
- Charles Reason
- Diego Rodriguez (Mexcian) 1569-1668
- Zhu Shijie
- Jason Sharples
- Thomas F Storer (Native American) 1938-2006
- Richard Tapia (Chicano) b. 1939
- Terence Tao (Chinese Australian) b. 1975
- Belin Tsinnajinnie (Navajo & Filipino)
- Alan Turing
- John Urschel (African-American) b.1991
- Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr.
- Francis William
- Scott Williams (African American) b. 1943
- Wen Tsun Wu (Chinese) b. 1919
- Shing-Tung Yau (Chinese) b. 1949
- Ahmed Zainy al-Yasry
Women (alphabetical by last name)
This book is a great resource for many of these women.
- Maria Gaetana Agnesi
- Amie Albrecht
- Grace Awani Alele-Williams
- Rowena Ball
- Nina Bari
- Kbenesh W. Blayneh
- Ros Chandra Bose
- Marjorie Lee Browne
- Mary Cartwright
- Emilie Du Chatelet
- Maria Chudnovsky b. 1977
- Fan Chung (Taiwanese-American) b. 1949
- Monica Clapp
- Joan Clarke (1917-1996)
- Ingrid Daubechies
- Shakuntala Devi
- Annie Easley
- Etta Zuber Falconer
- Sue Finley (American) modern
- Hannah Fry (English) modern
- Sophie Germain
- Courtney Gibbons (American) modern
- Gloria Ford Gilmer
- Shafi Goldwasser
- Concha Gomez (Cuban American) modern
- Evelyn Boyd Granville
- Joséphine Guidy-Wandja
- Lillian K Bradley
- Margaret Hamilton (American) b. 1936
- Euphemia Lofton Hayes (African-American) 1890-1980
- Gloria Hewitt
- Fern Hunt
- Hypatia (Greek) c. 350-415
- Grace Hopper (American) 1906-1992
- Emma Haruka Iwao
- Mary Jackson (African American) 1921-2005
- Mae Jemison (African American)
- Katherine Johnson (Coleman) (African American) b. 1918
- Trachette Jackson
- Nalini Joshi (Indian-Burmese-Australian)
- Chawne Kimber
- Frances Kirwan (British) b. 1959
- Sofia Kovalevskaya (Russian) 1850-1891
- Izabella Laba (Polish) b. 1966
- Olga Ladyzhenkaya
- Dawn A. Lot
- Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
- Vivenne Malone-Mayes (African-American) 1932-1995
- Verdiana Grace Masanja
- Christine Alicia McMillan
- Maryam Mirzakhani (Iranian-American) b. 1977
- Emmy Noether (German) 1882-1935
- Karlie Noon
- Hee Oh (S. Korean) b. 1969
- Esther Okake (Nigerian-British, child)
- Kate Adebola Okikiolu
- Kathleen Ollerenshaw
- Aida Paalman
- Marian Pour-El (American) 1928-2009
- Candice Price
- Mina Rees
- Marjorie Rice (American) b. 1975
- Sally Ride (American) b.
- Julia Robinson
- Nancy Grace Roman
- Mary G. Ross
- Bonita V. Saunders
- Doris Schattschneider (American) b. 1939
- Marjorie Senechal (American) b. 1939
- Caroline Series (English) b. 1951
- Hoang Xuan Sinh
- Mary Somerville (Scottish) 1780-1872
- Jean Springer (Jamaican) b. 1939
- Alicia Boole Stott (Irish-English) 1860-1940
- Daina Taimina (Latvian) b. 1954
- Karen Uhlenbeck (American) b. 1942
- Dorothy Vaughn (African American) 1910-2008
- Mariel Vázquez
- Argelia Velez-Rodriguez
- Aissa Wade
- Talitha Michal Washington
- Suzanne L. Weekes
Trans Mathematicians
- Adrian Scott Duane modern
But Brian (on twitter @_b_p and blogging at https://lazyocho.com/) has made some excellent printable posters to put up and he’s been kind enough to share them here! What a nice guy!