Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver facts for kids

Meet Jacqueline Mindy-Mae Hughes-Oliver! She's a super smart scientist who was born in Jamaica and grew up to become an American statistician. She uses her skills to help discover new medicines and understand chemicals better. Today, she's a professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU), teaching about statistics.

Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver's Journey

Jacqueline grew up in Jamaica. She lived there with her grandmother while her mom worked in the US. When she was 12, she became a US citizen. At age 15, she moved to the United States.

Her College Years

Jacqueline went to the University of Cincinnati. She graduated in 1986 with a degree in mathematics. She earned high honors, called "magna cum laude."

She then continued her studies at North Carolina State University (NCSU). In 1991, she earned her PhD in statistics. She might have been the first African-American person to get a doctorate from her department! Her special research was about "group testing." This is a smart way to test many things at once.

Teaching and Research

After a short time teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Jacqueline returned to NCSU in 1992. She became a professor there.

At NCSU, she started and led a big research group. It was called the Exploratory Center for Cheminformatics Research. She began this group in 2005 with a large grant from the National Institutes of Health. This group studied how to use computers to understand chemicals.

From 2007, she also directed the graduate program in statistics at NCSU. This meant she helped guide students who were getting their advanced degrees. She also taught at George Mason University for a few years, from 2011 to 2014. But she kept her job at NCSU and later returned there full-time.

Awards and Special Recognition

Jacqueline Hughes-Oliver has received many important awards for her work. These awards show how much she has helped the field of statistics.

Top Honors in Statistics

In 2007, she was chosen as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. This is a very high honor for statisticians. It means her colleagues recognize her important contributions.

She also won the Blackwell-Tapia prize in 2014. This award celebrates scientists who make big discoveries in math and statistics. It also honors those who work to make science more diverse. Jacqueline has worked hard to encourage more people from different backgrounds to study math.

Celebrating Her Achievements

In 2017, she was recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black. This group highlights the achievements of Black mathematicians during Black History Month.

More recently, in 2022, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This is another major honor. It shows her important role in advancing science and research.