Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) facts for kids

Nathaniel Dean (born January 9, 1956 – died January 2021) was an African-American mathematician and teacher. He made important contributions to different areas of math. These included graph theory, which is about connections, and data visualization, which is about showing information visually. He also worked on parallel computing, which uses many computers at once.

Education and Early Career

Nathaniel Dean loved math and science from a young age. He earned his first degree in Mathematics and Physics in 1978 from Mississippi State University. He then continued his studies, getting a master's degree in Applied Mathematics in 1983.

In 1987, he completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Vanderbilt University. For his Ph.D., he wrote a big research paper called "Contractible Edges and Conjectures and Path and Cycle Numbers." This paper showed his deep understanding of complex math problems.

Scientific Discoveries

After finishing his studies, Dr. Dean worked at Bell Labs for eleven years. Bell Labs is a famous research company where many important inventions were made. There, he wrote more than thirty scientific papers. His work focused on graph theory, which studies how things are connected, like cities on a map.

He also explored graph algorithms, which are step-by-step instructions for solving problems using graphs. Dr. Dean also worked on parallel computing, which means using many computers at the same time to solve big problems faster. He also helped make data visualization better, which is about showing information in pictures like charts and graphs.

In 1995, Dr. Dean proposed a challenging math problem called a conjecture. This idea helped other mathematicians make progress on the second neighborhood problem. This problem is still a puzzle that mathematicians are working to solve today. His work on using graph theory to find patterns in large amounts of information, called data mining, was even shown on the PBS TV series Life by the Numbers.

In 1997, Dr. Dean received a special award called the Bell Labs President's Silver Award. Soon after, he became a professor at Rice University. While at Rice, he guided four students who were working on their Ph.D. degrees. Their research covered topics from graph theory to using computers to understand biology.

In 2001, Dr. Dean was chosen as the vice president of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM). This organization helps and encourages mathematicians, especially those from groups that haven't always had many opportunities in math. In 2003, he moved to Texas Southern University. There, he became a full professor and led the mathematics department.

In 2006, Dr. Dean moved to Texas State University. At Texas State, he spent a lot of time focusing on teaching math and helping more people get interested in it. He was the President of NAM from 2005 to 2015, which shows how dedicated he was to helping others in math. During this time, he continued his research in graph theory and wrote an important article about data visualization. He retired from Texas State University in 2016.

Helping Others Learn Math

Dr. Dean was very active in helping people learn math throughout his career. Besides being featured on the PBS show, he created computer programs to teach math to students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Much of his outreach work was through the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM). He served as NAM's vice president from 2001 to 2004 and then as president from 2005 to 2015. He also worked with the American Mathematical Society to publish two books about African American mathematicians. From 2001 to 2006, he was an editor for the Notices of the AMS, a math publication.

Dr. Dean was also involved with other math groups. He was on the board of governors for the Mathematical Association of America from 2005 to 2007. He also led a committee for the MSRI from 2005 to 2007. In 2010, he gave a special lecture called the Pi Mu Epsilon J. Sutherland Frame Lecture.

His fifth and final Ph.D. student finished their degree at Texas State University in 2010. This student's research was about how to teach math better in high schools.