Elayne Arrington
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Elayne Arrington | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | University of Cincinnati |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics Engineering |
| Thesis | The P-Frattini Subgroup of a Finite Group (1974) |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald B. Parker |
Elayne Arrington Idowu is an American mathematician and engineer. She was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering.[1]
Early life and education
Elayne Arrington grew up in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Homestead High School in 1957 where she was valedictorian, receiving the country's second highest mathematics SAT score (797 out of 800).[2] She was recommended for a scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, but the sponsor, the Mesta Machine Company, withdrew her application for the scholarship, saying that the money had to be given to a man because women do not finish engineering programs.[3] In 1961 she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering. She earned a master's in mathematics from the University of Dayton, Ohio. While working on her master's Arrington also took math courses at Oxford University.[2] She earned her PhD entitled "The P-Frattini Subgroup of a Finite Group" in 1974, supervised by Donald B. Parker.[4] She became the 17th African-American woman in the United States to earn a PhD in mathematics.[5][2]
Career
Arrington became an aerospace engineer at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base's Foreign Technology Division in Dayton, Ohio,[5] where she worked on performance analysis of Soviet Union aircraft. Later she returned to the University of Pittsburgh where she became an associate professor of mathematics.[2]
Awards
In 2017 Arrington received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the African American Alumni Council.[5]
References
- ^ Wojcik, Joe (15 February 2017). "Pioneer role model for next generation". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
- ^ a b c d "Elayne Arrington". www.pts.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
- ^ "Robert Hill: Pittsburgh's own 'Hidden Figures'". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
- ^ "University of Cincinnati Mathematics PhD Alumni".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c "Four Inspiring African-American Women Honored at University of Pittsburgh - SWSG". SWSG. 2017-07-20. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
- Living people
- African-American academics
- African-American women engineers
- African-American engineers
- American women engineers
- African-American mathematicians
- 20th-century American mathematicians
- American women mathematicians
- 21st-century American mathematicians
- Mathematicians from Pennsylvania
- 20th-century women engineers
- 21st-century women engineers
- 20th-century women mathematicians
- 21st-century women mathematicians