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He is also a fascinating guy son of J. Ernest and Lucile Beatrice (Robinson) Wilkins, Sr.; married Gloria Louise Stewart (deceased); married Maxine G. Malone (deceased); children: (first marriage) Sharon Wilkins Hill, J. Ernest III Education: University of Chicago, BS, 1940, MS, 1941, PhD, 1942; New York University, BME, 1957, MME, 1960. Given their backgrounds, it is hardly surprising that Wilkins's parents stressed the importance of education and achievement. An extremely bright child, Wilkins entered Willard Elementary School at the age of four, skipping grades until he found himself in the fifth grade at the age of seven. Although his two brothers became lawyers, Wilkins was more interested in mathematics. His parents encouraged his early interests, and soon he was solving a variety of mathematical puzzles. At Parker High School, Wilkins's math teacher recognized his talent and accelerated his coursework. He also participated in track, tennis, and baseball. Wilkins entered the nearby University of Chicago at the age of 13--the youngest student ever admitted. University scholarships covered his tuition. He lived at home and tutored other students to earn spending money. While majoring in mathematics, Wilkins took extra courses and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1940 at the age of 16. That same year he ranked in the top ten in the prestigious William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition for undergraduates. In addition, Wilkins won the boys' state table tennis championship in 1938 and was the university's champion for three years. Using the graduate credits he had earned as an undergraduate, Wilkins was awarded his master's degree in mathematics in 1941. The following year, at the age of 19, Wilkins earned a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago. Newspapers around the country proclaimed him the "Negro genius." Published His First Mathematical Papers Wilkins's dissertation, completed under Magnus R. Hestenes, was titled Multiple Integral Problems in Parametric Form in the Calculus of Variations. He was the eighth black American, and one of the youngest Americans ever, to earn a Ph.D. degree in mathematics. A Rosenwald Scholarship enabled Wilkins to spend 1942 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, as a postdoctoral research fellow. Despite his outstanding credentials, Wilkins could not find a position at a research university. During 1943 and 1944 he was a mathematics instructor at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), a historically black school in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was the first year that the institute offered graduate-level courses. Wilkins published his first two research papers, both on geometry, in 1943. During the following year he published four more papers, three on differential and integral equations and problems, including his revised Ph.D. dissertation, and one on statistics. Awards 1. Selected: U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, 1980; NAM, Honorary Life Member, Lifetime Achievement Award, 1994; QEM Network, Giant in Science Award, 1994; DOE, Special Recognition Award, 1996; Univ. of Chicago Alumni Association, Professional Achievement Citation, 1997. Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr. (born 1. November 27, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois) is an African American mathematician who gained notoriety for entering the University of Chicago at age 13 in 1936. He completed a B.S. in mathematics in 1940 at 17. Then he went on to complete a Ph.D in mathematics at the University of Chicago just two year later in 1942, at age 19. Throughout the years of his work, Wilkins published more than 100 papers on a variety of subjects, including differential geometry, linear differential equations, integrals, nuclear engineering, and optics.
