The Marjorie Lee Browne Colloquium was established in 1999 in the Department of Mathematics in observance of Martin Luther King day. The colloquium brings a distinguished speaker to campus to present a talk that highlights their research but also addresses the issue of diversity in the sciences. It honors the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UM.
Marjorie Lee Browne received her B.S. in mathematics from Howard University (1935). She received her M.S. in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1939, making her one of the first few African American women with a graduate mathematics degree. Ms. Browne taught at Wiley College while continuing graduate work during the summers. She received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Michigan in 1950, making her Michigan’s first known African American woman mathematics Ph.D. recipient. Her thesis, “On the One Parameter Subgroups of Certain Topological and Matrix Groups”, was directed by Professor G. Y. Rainich.
Dr. Browne taught at North Carolina Central University from 1949 until her death in 1979. She was the only faculty member with a Ph.D. for twenty five years, and a strong leader. She chaired the department from 1951 until 1970, supervised ten Masters theses, and inspired a generation of talented students to continue in mathematics. Dr. Browne also had a deep interest in continuing education for secondary school teachers. Under her leadership, the NSF funded a summer institute for secondary school teachers of mathematics for thirteen years, for which Dr. Browne also authored four sets of lecture notes.
Source: Patricia C. Kenschaft “Black Women in Mathematics in the United States,” American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 88 (1981), 592-604.
2025 Marjorie Lee Browne Colloquium (video of talk)
Date: Monday, January 20, 2025
Room: 1360 East Hall, 530 Church Street
Time: 4:00 pm
Speaker: Federico Ardila-Mantilla
Professor of Mathematics
San Francisco State University
Title: Geometry, Robots, and Society (link to video of lecture)
Abstract:
How do we move a robot quickly from one position to another? To answer this question, we need to understand its “space of possibilities”, a “map” where we can find every possible position of the robot. Unfortunately, these spaces are very large, they live in very high-dimensions, and they are very difficult to visualize. Fortunately, mathematicians have encountered and studied these kinds of spaces before. Thanks to the tools they’ve developed, we can build “remote controls” to navigate these complicated spaces; this allows us to move (some) robots optimally.
As the imaginary border between “pure” and “applied” mathematics disappears before our eyes, we face an important ethical questions that we cannot ignore: What’s the role of mathematicians and scientists in building a more just and equitable society?
