Philadelphia Area Seminar History of Mathematics PASHoM

Thursday, February 20, 2025 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Maryam Vulis

City University of New York, CUNY, York College

We will examine the works of the nuclear scientist and mathematician Ernest Wilkins. His life story is incredible. Ernest Wilkins entered the University of Chicago at 13 and received a PhD in Mathematics at 19 from the University. In 1942, Wilkins was awarded the Rosenwald Scholarship to continue his education at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, then taught at Tuskegee Institute, and consequently joined the research group for the Manhattan project. Wilkins suffered discrimination. The talented scientist was chosen to work on the Manhattan project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. However, at that time, he was not able to accept the position due to Jum Crow laws. This is a dark part of American science. Notably, Wilkins continued his contributions for the Manhattan Project at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory along with Enrico Fermi, and afterwards at several universities, and spent time working on applications of nuclear physics to industry. The scientist published numerous papers on mathematics and physics, and, to better understand the industrial needs, obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees of Mechanical Engineering from New York University in 1957-60. Ernest Wilkins devoted his career to minorities education - taught at Tuskegee Institute, established the Ph.D. Program in Mathematics at Howard University in the 1970s and in 1990 joined Clark Atlanta University as a Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Physics. Wilkins’ life is an example of someone who overcame adversity and became one of the most distinguished scientists.