Bharucha-Reid, Albert Turner

Impact on the world

Authored more than 70 research papers and six books extending probability theory into applied domains years before “interdisciplinary” became a common credential, including the foundational 1960 textbook Elements of the Theory of Markov Processes and Their Applications, translated into Russian and used internationally; directed Wayne State University's Center for Research in Probability through the 1960s and mentored at least thirteen PhD students while serving on national committees that opened graduate mathematics to more women and minority students.

Life & background

Born Albert Turner Reid on November 13, 1927, in Hampton, Virginia, to an electrician father and a mother both connected to Hampton Institute, and a great-nephew of pioneering Black biologist Charles Henry Turner; wrote his first paper, in mathematical biology, at age 18, and earned a BS in mathematics and biology from Iowa State University in 1949. He pursued doctoral study in probability and statistics at the University of Chicago from 1950 to 1953 — publishing eight papers in that span — but chose not to complete a formal dissertation, a decision that did not prevent him from holding research and faculty positions at Columbia University, UC Berkeley, the University of Oregon, and ultimately Wayne State University, where he rose from associate professor in 1961 to full professor in 1965 and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences in 1970. In 1954 he married Rodab Phiroze Bharucha and combined their surnames; the couple had two sons. A fellow of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1958-59) and visiting scholar in India, he chaired Wayne State's Center for Research in Probability, edited the Journal of Integral Equations until his death, and served on the American Mathematical Society's Affirmative Action Committee and as chair of the Minority Graduate Education Committee of the Graduate Record Examinations Board. He died February 26, 1985; his sixth book, Random Polynomials, was published posthumously, and the National Association of Mathematicians established the Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid Lecture in his honor.

Sources

1. MacTutor History of Mathematics; BlackPast.org; Mathematicians of the African Diaspora (SUNY Buffalo); Amistad Research Center