Marjorie Lee Browne

Marjorie Lee Browne (September 9, 1914 – October 19, 1979) was a mathematics educator. She was one of the first African-American women to receive a PhD in mathematics.

Early life and education

Marjorie Lee Browne was the daughter of Mary Taylor Lee and Lawrence Johnson Lee, but was raised by her father and Lottie Lee, because her mother passed away when she was two years old. Her father was talented at mental arithmetic and had also completed two years of college, which was rare at the time.

She attended Howard University, majoring in mathematics and graduating cum laude in 1935. After receiving her bachelor's degree, she taught high school and college for a short term, including at Gilbert Academy in New Orleans. She was one of the first African-American women in the US to earn a doctorate in mathematics, along with Evelyn Boyd Granville, who also earned a Ph.D. in 1949.

Later life and career After receiving her doctorate, Browne was unable to keep a teaching position at a research institution. As a result of this, she worked with secondary school mathematics teachers, instructing them in "modern math". She focused especially on encouraging math education for minorities and women.

Contributions Browne's work on classical groups demonstrated simple proofs of important topological properties of and relations between classical groups. Her work in general focused on linear and matrix algebra.

Browne saw the importance of computer science early on, writing a $60,000 grant to IBM to bring a computer to NCCU in 1960—one of the first computers in academic computing, and probably the first at a historically black school. She established summer institutes to provide continuing education in mathematics for high school teachers. In 1974 she was awarded the first W. W. Rankin Memorial Award from the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics for her work with mathematics education. Marjorie Lee Browne Scholarship, which offers full scholarships to students majoring in math at NCCU.