Roosevelt Gentry
- Ethnicity: African American
- Gender: M
- Year of Birth: 1947
- Place of Birth: Noxapater, Mississippi
Department of Mathematics
Jackson State University
Jackson, MS 39217-0355
Voice (601) 968-2505
Fax (601) 968-2718
rogentry@ccaix.jsums.edu
Education
- PhD Institution: Rutgers University-New Brunswick, 1974
- Dissertation Title: Compact Interpolation between Banach Spaces
- Advisor: Vernon Williams
- MS Institution: Rutgers University-New Brunswick, 1970
- BS Institution: Jackson State University, 1968
Biography
Dr. Roosevelt Gentry faced a tough decision in high school -- whether
to be a mathematician or biologist. "I loved both subjects," he recalls,
"but I was not sure that I had a future in mathematics. Then my mathematics
teacher, whom I admired, wrote in my high school yearbook: 'Roosevelt can
do anything he wants to do in life.' That small message gave me the confidence
to go into mathematics." Today, Gentry works in biomathematics. "I now
have the best of both worlds," he says.
Gentry now teaches and does research at Jackson State University in
Jackson, Mississippi, where he completed his undergraduate work.
He returned to that school after earning a PhD in mathematics from Rutgers
University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Gentry became chairman of
the department soon afterwards and spend the next 10 years as an administrator
and teacher. During and after this time he co-authored books on mathematics
and psychology. In 1988, he received a [National Science Foundation]
M[inority] R[esearch] I[nitiation] grant to work on the
solution of a system of differential equations that describes events in
the physical and biological worlds. "These equations can be used in computer
simulations of experiments," he points out. "I am presently applying them
to biology."
"I would not be able to do this without MRI support," Gentry continues.
"It pays for computer hardware and software and frees me to do full time
research in the summer." Each summer, he travels to Rutgers to work
with his former teacher. "I can travel and take minicourses, which I could
not do on my department's budget," he adds. "And the grant gives me time
to participate in a program whereby mathematicians travel to high schools
in Mississippi and Louisiana to talk to students about careers in mathematics.
I could not do this unless I had the freedom that the award gives me."
Dr. Gentry is convinced that such programs are one way to increase the
participation of minorities in science and engineering. "MRI-type programs
are another way," he says, "and the two can reinforce each other. Those
of us who have received MRI support can serve as role models to encourage
precollege and undergraduate students to apply for available grants. This
is having a positive impact, but we need more of it and additional programs,
too, to halt the decline in the numbers of PhD degrees in science and engineering
awarded to minorities."
[Source: National Science Foundation, "Models of Excellence," (NSF 90-28),
Washington, DC, 1990.]