Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) facts for kids

Nathaniel Dean (born January 9, 1956 – died January 2021) was an amazing African-American mathematician and teacher. He made important discoveries in math, especially about how to connect things (called graph theory), how to show information clearly (called data visualization), and how computers can do many things at once (called parallel computing).

Learning and Education

Nathaniel Dean loved learning! He earned his first degree in Math and Physics from Mississippi State University in 1978. Later, he got a master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Northeastern University in 1983.

In 1987, he earned his Ph.D. (the highest degree you can get) in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University. His big research paper, called a "doctoral thesis," was about "Contractible Edges and Conjectures about Path and Cycle Numbers." This sounds complicated, but it was about how edges in graphs can be 'shrunk' and ideas about paths and cycles.

A Career in Science

After finishing his studies, Dr. Dean worked at Bell Labs for eleven years. Bell Labs is a famous place where scientists invent new technologies. There, he wrote over thirty scientific papers. These papers were about graph theory, which is a way to study connections between things. He also wrote about how computers can solve problems faster (algorithms and parallel computing) and how to make data easy to understand (data visualization).

In 1995, he came up with a big math puzzle called the "second neighborhood problem." Scientists are still trying to solve parts of it today! His work on using graph theory to find patterns in huge amounts of information (called data mining) was even shown on the TV show Life by the Numbers on PBS.

In 1997, Dr. Dean received a special award from Bell Labs. Soon after, he became a professor at Rice University. While at Rice, he helped four students get their Ph.D.s. Their projects included topics like graph theory and even how computers can help understand biology. In 2001, he became a leader in a group called the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM).

In 2003, Dr. Dean moved to Texas Southern University. There, he became a full professor and even led the math department. Later, in 2006, he moved to Texas State University. At Texas State, he focused a lot on teaching math and helping others learn. He was the President of NAM from 2005 to 2015! He retired from Texas State in 2016.

Helping Others Learn Math

Nathaniel Dean was very passionate about helping people learn math. Besides being on the PBS show Life by the Numbers, he created computer programs. These programs helped younger students (from kindergarten to high school) learn a type of math called discrete mathematics.

A lot of his outreach work was through the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM). NAM is a group that helps people from groups who haven't always had many chances in math. Dr. Dean was the Vice President of NAM from 2001 to 2004 and then the President from 2005 to 2015.

He also worked with the American Mathematical Society to publish books about African American mathematicians. From 2001 to 2006, he was an editor for their magazine, Notices of the AMS.

Dr. Dean was also involved with other math groups. He served on the board of the Mathematical Association of America from 2005 to 2007. He also helped lead a committee for the MSRI during the same years. In 2010, he gave a special lecture called "Incomprehensibility."

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