Iris Mack facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Iris Mack
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| Born | May 17, 1956 |
| Died | September 27, 2022 |
| Alma mater | Vassar College UCLA London Business School Harvard University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | AT&T Bell Labs MIT University of San Francisco Clark Atlanta University Investment Banque BNP Paribas Enron Harvard Management Company |
| Thesis | Block implicit one-step methods for solving smooth and discontinuous systems of differential/algebraic equations (1986) |
Iris Marie Mack (1956–2022) was an American writer, speaker, and mathematician. She was known for her work in applied mathematics and for helping students learn math.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Iris Mack grew up in a busy neighborhood in New Orleans. She was one of ten children in her family. As a teenager, she became very interested in space and how the universe works. She even worked as a summer intern, like a student helper, at a NASA facility.
College and Beyond
Iris Mack went to Vassar College and graduated in 1978. She studied two main subjects: mathematics and mathematical physics. While in college, she also worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There, she helped with the Viking program, which sent probes to Mars.
She continued her studies at UCLA for her master's degree in mathematics. Later, she worked at AT&T Bell Labs. She even received a patent for her work on fiber optics, which uses light to send information.
Achieving a Doctorate
As a Sloan Fellow, Iris Mack attended the London Business School. She earned an executive MBA, which is a special business degree. In 1986, she made history by becoming the second Black woman to earn a doctorate degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University.
After that, she became the first Black woman to teach applied mathematics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She taught there until 1991. Her courses included financial engineering, statistics, and operations research. In 1989, she was even a semifinalist for the NASA Astronaut Program. This means she was considered to become an astronaut!
Career Highlights
Iris Mack was a busy person with many talents. She taught and advised on topics like energy derivatives and quantitative finance. These are complex areas that deal with money and investments. She shared her knowledge in places like New York City, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and London.
She also wrote articles for HuffPost, an online news platform. In these articles, she shared her thoughts on important financial events.
Helping Others Learn Math
In 2003, Dr. Mack started a company called Phat Math Inc. in Miami, Florida. A few years later, in 2007, she and her team launched PhatMath.com. This website was a special online place where students could get free math homework help. It was available 24/7 for students from kindergarten to college.
PhatMath.com was even named one of the Top 50 Social Sites for Educators and Academics. It was also listed as one of 25 Useful Networking Sites for Grad Students. Although the website is no longer active, it showed Dr. Mack's dedication to helping young people with math.
A Woman of Many Firsts
Dr. Mack had an amazing career. She was an astronaut semifinalist, showing her interest in space. She was recognized by Glamour Magazine as one of the "Top 10" college students and later one of the "Top 10" working women. She worked as an investment banker and an energy trader. She was also a professor at MIT.
She was the second African-American woman to earn a doctorate in Applied Mathematics from Harvard. She taught math and business, and also ran her own consulting firm. She lectured at the graduate level on energy trading and risk management.
Selected Works
Iris Mack wrote several books, sharing her knowledge with others.
- Energy Trading and Risk Management: A Practical Approach to Hedging, Trading and Portfolio Diversification
- Mama says, "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees!"
- Mama says, "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees!": World of Dr. Mackamatix Mathematics Edutainment Book
- Convergence analysis of block implicit one-step methods for solving differential/algebraic equations
- Generalized Picard-Lindelf theory
