We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
When I was growing up, women were not expected to choose a career in mathematics. Since I was always a rather hard-headed, stubborn individual, I rebelled against this notion and decided to do it anyway. And now, as a mathematician, I derive great satisfaction at the surprise in people's faces when they find out what I do for a living.
Mathematics is great. I can sit and think, deduce and reason, be creative all day long—and get paid for it. And what's really interesting is that most of the work I do has no immediate practical value, because mathematicians don't usually attack a problem with an application in mind. We leave it to the scientists to take our results and find some use for them.
As for my history: I majored in mathematics in college and obtained my BA from the University of Florida. Next, I joined the Peace Corps and went to Liberia, West Africa, where I had my first experience as a teacher. I taught mathematics, and my students taught me about their culture and what it meant to be an African. After my tour in Africa, I went to Scotland to teach math, and found that mathematics is important in all cultures.
Upon returning to the United States, I went back to school, earning a BA in art at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
