mathematics

Nathaniel Dean (mathematician)

Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) rather than just read about it. In short: Nathaniel Dean (January 9, 1956 – January 2021) was an African-American mathematician and educator who made contributions to abstract and algorithmic graph theory, as well as data visualization and parallel computing. Education Dean received his B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Mississippi State University in 1978.

Key takeaways

Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reproduce the core statement of Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nathaniel Dean (January 9, 1956 – January 2021) was an African-American mathematician and educator who made contributions to abstract and algorithmic graph theory, as well as data visualization and parallel computing.

Education Dean received his B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Mississippi State University in 1978. He then received his M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Northeastern University in 1983. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University in 1987, with a doctoral thesis titled "Contractible Edges and Conjectures about Path and Cycle Numbers".

Scientific career For the next eleven years, he worked at the Software Production Research Department of Bell Labs, where he would author over thirty scientific publications on graph theory, graph algorithms, parallel computing, and data visualization. In 1995 he posed a conjecture which led to progress on the second neighborhood problem, which remains open as of 2020. His work on using graph theory for data mining was featured in the PBS series Life by the Numbers. In 1997 Dean received the Bell Labs President's Silver Award, and shortly thereafter began a professorship at Rice University. While at Rice, he supervised four Ph.D. students with thesis topics ranging from algorithmic graph theory to biological computing. On January 11, 2001, Dean was elected vice president of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM). In 2003 he moved from Rice University to Texas Southern University, where he attained the rank of full professor and would serve as chair of the mathematics department. Dean's departure from Texas Southern University to Texas State University was announced in a NAM newsletter in 2006. Dean focused on mathematics education and outreach throughout his time at Texas State, most notably by serving as President of NAM from 2005 to 2015. His research activities during this time include graph theory and an influential article on data visualization. He retired from Texas State in 2016.

Outreach Dean was actively involved in mathematics education and outreach throughout his career. In addition to his involvement in the PBS series Life by the Numbers, he developed software to teach discrete mathematics at the K-12 level. Much of Dean's outreach was through the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM), a nonprofit which aims to promote the mathematical development of underrepresented minorities; his involvement with NAM includes serving as vice president (2001-2004) and president (2005-2015). Separate from his involvement with NAM, Dean worked with the American Mathematical Society to publish two conference proceeding on African American mathematicians. Dean also served as an associate editor of the Notices of the AMS from 2001 to 2006. Dean was quite involved with other professional societies in mathematics as well. He served on the board of governors of the Mathematical Association of America from 2005 to 2007, and served as chair of MSRI's Human Resources Advisory Committee (HRAC) from 2005 to 2007. In 2010, he gave the Pi Mu Epsilon J. Sutherland Frame Lecture on "Incomprehensibility". Dean's fifth and final Ph.D. student graduated from Texas State University in 2010, with a thesis on secondary school mathematics pedagogy.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nathaniel Dean (mathematician)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nathaniel Dean (mathematician)

In research: Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1956 births, African-American mathematicians, Rice University faculty, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) in simple terms?

Why does Nathaniel Dean (mathematician) matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nathaniel Dean (mathematician)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nathaniel Dean (mathematician).