AAAS Mentor Award

2008 Award Recipient

Sylvia T. Bozeman

Sylvia T. Bozeman

Sylvia T. Bozeman is honored for her commitment to increasing the number of African- American women with PhDs in mathematics.

The AAAS Mentor Award, established in 1996, honors AAAS members who have mentored significant numbers of students from underrepresented groups or who have changed the climate of a department, college, or institution to significantly increase the diversity of students pursuing and completing doctoral studies in the sciences. This award is directed toward individuals in the early- or mid-career stage who have mentored students for less than 25 years. The recipient receives $5,000 and a commemorative plaque.

Sylvia Trimble Bozeman is Professor of Mathematics at Spelman College where she has served as Mathematics Department Chair, Associate Provost for Science and Mathematics, member of the Board of Trustees, and performed many other leadership roles. Her work over the past two decades has included significant efforts to bring more African-Americans—as well as women and individuals from other under-represented groups—into the field of mathematics. Her own mentor, Dr. Etta Z. Falconer, received the AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001.

Among Dr. Bozeman's significant accomplishments is the Spelman-Bryn Mawr Summer Mathematics Program, a partnership begun in 1998 between the mathematics departments of the two schools to attract first- and second-year college women to careers in mathematics. (The program was developed in collaboration with Bryn Mawr's Professor Rhonda Hughes, winner of the AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2004.). Dr. Bozeman also co-directed Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE), a national program that assists women in making the transition from undergraduate to graduate school in mathematics.

A native of Camp Hill, Alabama, Dr. Bozeman earned a BS degree from Alabama A&M University (1968), an MS from Vanderbilt University (1970), and a PhD from Emory University (1980), all in mathematics. Her research interests have included Operator Theory in Functional Analysis and topics in Image Processing.

Dr. Bozeman is actively involved in several professional organizations and has served terms on the executive boards of four mathematical societies: the Mathematical Association of America, the American Mathematical Society, the Association for Women in Mathematics and the National Association of Mathematicians.