We continue our celebration of Black STEM history with the story of one of the most important contemporary mathematicians - J. Ernest Wilkins Jr. (1/5)
Wilkins Jr. was born in 1923 in Chicago, to Lucile Beatrice Robinson Wilkins, a school teacher for the Chicago Public School system, and J. Ernest Wilkins, a prominent attorney and previous secretary of labor. (2/5)
At just 19 years old, he held a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics from @UChicago. Upon graduation, he worked in the University of Chicago Met Lab studying fissionable nuclear materials under Enrico Fermi and Arthur Compton. (3/5)
During the Manhattan Project, his team was set to transfer to Oak Ridge, but the Jim Crow laws at the time prevented Wilkins Jr. from taking up his post. After a letter from Edward Teller, he was instead transferred to the lab of Eugene Wigner at @UChicago. (4/5)
Despite facing significant racism, he continued a groundbreaking career including roles serving as a senior fellow at @argonne National Lab, founding the @HowardU Mathematics Ph.D. program and serving as president of @ANS_org. (5/5)
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