Evelyn Boyd Granville
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Evelyn Boyd Granville (born May 1, 1924) was the second African-American woman in the U.S. to receive a PhD in mathematics. (The first was Euphemia Haynes who was awarded her PhD from Catholic University in 1943.)
She was born and raised in Washington DC. She attended Smith College on scholarship where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude with honors in mathematics in 1943. She went on to acquire PhD in mathematics from Yale University in 1949. She taught at New York University (NYU) and Fisk University before becoming a research specialist in rocket and missile fuses, orbit computations and trajectory calculations for the space and national defense programs. As an employee of IBM she helped provide technical support for the Vanguard, Mercury and Apollo space programs.
She moved to California State University at Los Angeles in 1967 as a full professor of mathematics and married Edward V. Granville in 1970. After retiring from California State in 1984 she joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Tyler as professor and chair of mathematics. There she developed elementary school math enrichment programs. One of three African American women honored by the National Academy of Sciences in 1999, she has been awarded honorary degrees by Smith College and Lincoln University.
