# Edray Herber Goins

Edray H. Goins
BornJune 29, 1972 (age 48)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia Institute of Technology
Stanford University
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsPomona College
Purdue University
Karl Rubin

Edray Herber Goins (born June 29, 1972, Los Angeles) is an American mathematician. He specializes in number theory and algebraic geometry. His interests include Selmer groups for elliptic curves using class groups of number fields, Belyi maps and Dessin d'enfants.[1][2]

## Early life

Goins was born in Los Angeles in 1972. His mother, Eddi Beatrice Brown, was a teacher. He attended public schools in South Los Angeles and got his BSc in mathematics and physics in 1994 from California Institute of Technology, where he also received two prizes for mathematics. He completed his PhD in 1999 on “Elliptic Curves and Icosahedral Galois Representations” from Stanford University, under Daniel Bump and Karl Rubin.[3][4]

## Career

He served for many years on the faculty of Purdue University. He has also served as visiting scholar at both the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and Harvard.[4] Goins took a position at Pomona College in 2018.[5]

His summers have focused on engaging underrepresented students in research in the mathematical sciences. He currently runs the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) "Pomona Research in Mathematics Experience (PRiME)".[6] He is noted for his 2018 essay, "Three Questions: The Journey of One Black Mathematician".[7] He was elected to the 2019 Class of Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics.[8]

From 2015 to 2020, Goins served as President of the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM).[9]

## Mathematicians of the African Diaspora

In 1997 Scott W. Williams of the University at Buffalo, SUNY created the website "Mathematicians of the African Diaspora" (MAD) dedicated to promoting and highlighting the contributions of members of the African diaspora to mathematics, especially contributions to current mathematical research.[10] Williams retired in 2008 and it was left to others to continue the website he had spent 11 years building. After an initial town hall meeting about the future of the MAD Pages which took place at a Conference for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS), an informal group of mathematicians decided to work together to preserve Williams’ work. In 2015, the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) formed an ad hoc committee to update the MAD Pages, consisting of Edray Goins as NAM President, Committee Co-Chairs Don King (Northeastern University) and Asamoah Nkwanta (Morgan State University), and web developer John Weaver (Varsity Software).

## References

1. ^ Edray Herber Goins Mathematicians of the African Diaspora at the State University of New York at Buffalo
2. ^ Professor Goins featured speaker at University of Michigan's Dr. Marjorie Lee Browne Colloquium Department of Mathematics, Purdue University
3. ^
4. ^ a b "For a Black Mathematician, What It's Like to Be the 'Only One'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
5. ^ Why I’m leaving a Research I University for a Liberal Arts College American Mathematical Society Blog, Posted on September 15, 2017 by Edray Goins
6. ^ "2016 PRiME: Purdue Research in Mathematics Experience". www.math.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
7. ^ Three Questions: The Journey of One Black Mathematician by Edray Herber Goins, Notices of the AMS, February 2018
8. ^ "Fellows of the AWM". Association for Women in Mathematics. Association for Women in Mathematics. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
9. ^ Mathematical Lives: A Profile of Edray Goins Stanford Mathematics, June 19, 2020
10. ^ Mathematicians of the African Diaspora mathad.com