{{short description|American mathematician}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Fern Hunt | image = Fern_Hunt.jpg | image_size = | alt = Photo of Thyrsa Frazier Svager | birth_name = | birth_date = January 14, 1948 | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | death_cause = | fields = {{plainlist | * Mathematics }} | workplaces = {{plainlist | * University of Utah * Howard University * National Institutes of Health (NIH) * National Bureau of Standards * National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) }} | alma_mater = {{plainlist | * Bryn Mawr College * New York University }} |thesis_title = GENETIC AND SPATIAL VARIATION IN SOME SELECTION-MIGRATION MODELS. |thesis_url = https://search.library.nyu.edu/permalink/01NYU_INST/1d6v258/alma990022597380107876 |thesis_year = 1978 |doctoral_advisor = Frank Hoppensteadt | known_for = | notable_students = }}
'''Fern Yvette Hunt''' (born January 14, 1948) is an African American<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-05 |title=11 Famous African American Mathematicians You Should Know About |url=https://www.mashupmath.com/blog/famous-african-american-mathematicians |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=Mashup Math |language=en-US}}</ref> mathematician known for her work in applied mathematics and mathematical biology.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Fern Hunt's Biography |url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/fern-hunt |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=The HistoryMakers |language=en}}</ref> She currently works as a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she conducts research on the ergodic theory of dynamical systems.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2019-07-30 |title=Fern Hunt |url=https://www.nist.gov/people/fern-hunt |journal=NIST |language=en}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Hunt was born in New York City on January 14, 1948, to Daphne Lindsay and Thomas Edward Hunt. Her sister, Erica Hunt, is a published poet and author. Hunt's grandparents immigrated to the United States from Jamaica before World War I.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Fern Y. Hunt, Mathematician of the African Diaspora |url=http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/hunt_ferny.html |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=www.math.buffalo.edu}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Her family lived in a primarily black housing project in Hampton. Her father did not graduate from high school, and though her mother attended Hunter College for two years, she did not earn a degree. When Hunt was 9 years old, her mother gifted her a chemistry set for Christmas, which sparked her early interest in science. Hunt's middle school science teacher, Charles Wilson, further encouraged Hunt to pursue math and science.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mathematics Awareness Month 2015:: Profiles |url=https://ww2.amstat.org/mam/2015/highlighted/ |access-date=2023-01-04 |website=ww2.amstat.org}}</ref> Hunt attended the Bronx High School of Science, and it was during her time in high school that her primary focus shifted from science to mathematics.<ref name=":2" /> After graduating high school, Hunt attended Bryn Mawr College following the encouragement of her mother, earning an A.B. in mathematics in 1969.<ref name=":1" /> She went on to earn a master's degree and PhD in mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematics at New York University in 1978.<ref name="Spangenburg">{{cite book |last1=Spangenburg |first1=Ray |url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericans0000span |title=African Americans in science, math, and invention |last2=Moser |first2=Kit |date=2003 |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=0816048061 |location=New York, NY |url-access=registration}}</ref> Her PhD thesis (1978) ''Genetic and Spatial Variation in some Selection-Migration Models'' was advised by Frank Hoppensteadt.<ref name=":1" />
==Career== Hunt began her academic career at the University of Utah, and in 1978, she accepted a job as an assistant professor at Howard University. She remained a member of the Department of Mathematics at Howard until 1993. While at Howard, she also worked for the National Institutes of Health in the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology (1981-1982) and the National Bureau of Standards (1986-1991).<ref name=":1" /> Additionally, from 1988 to 1991, she was a member of the GRE Mathematics Advisory Board at Educational Testing Service (ETS). In 1993, she left Howard and began working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she worked on mathematical problems from physics and chemistry research. While working at NIST she continued her research on the ergodic theory of dynamical systems.<ref name=Spangenburg/>
Fern also lectures at colleges and universities to encourage students in mathematics. She uses her experiences of the setbacks she experienced as a black woman in mathematics to mentor minority students interested in mathematics. In 1998 she was an instructor at a summer workshop for women entering Ph.D. programs in mathematics run by the EDGE Foundation (Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education).<ref name=Spangenburg/>
==Awards and achievements== In 2000, Hunt received the Arthur S. Flemming Award for her contributions to probability and stochastic modeling, mathematical biology, computational geometry, nonlinear dynamics, computer graphics, and parallel computing.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Fern Hunt Receives Arthur S. Flemming Award| work = NIST| access-date = 2015-02-23| date = June 2000| url = http://math.nist.gov/mcsd/highlights/hunt-award.html}}</ref> She has been a member of the Bryn Mawr College board of trustees since 1992 and the Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee for the United States Department of Energy since 1994.<ref name=Spangenburg/>
Hunt was included in the 2019 class of fellows of the American Mathematical Society "for outstanding applications of mathematics to science and technology, exceptional service to the US government, and for outreach and mentoring".<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.ams.org/profession/ams-fellows/new-fellows|title=2019 Class of the Fellows of the AMS|publisher=American Mathematical Society|accessdate=2018-11-08}}</ref> In 2005, the Association for Women in Mathematics awarded her the Ella Z. Falconer award, where she delivered the lecture "Techniques for Visualizing Frequency Patterns in DNA."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Falconer Lectures |url=https://awm-math.org/awards/falconer-lectures/ |access-date=2026-04-10 |website=Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) |language=en-US}}</ref> The AWM has included her in the 2020 class of AWM Fellows for "her exceptional commitment to outreach and mentoring; for her sustained efforts to make the AWM organization more inclusive; for her service to higher education and government; and for inspiring those underrepresented in mathematics with her work in ergodic theory, probability, and computation".<ref>{{citation|url=https://awm-math.org/awards/awm-fellows/2020-awm-fellows/|title=2020 Class of AWM Fellows|publisher=Association for Women in Mathematics|accessdate=2019-11-08}}</ref>
Hunt's work earned her recognition by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2017 Honoree.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Fern Hunt|url=https://mathematicallygiftedandblack.com/honorees/fern-hunt/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=Mathematically Gifted & Black}}</ref>
==Published Works== * [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1dr35cc.87 HUNT, F. Y. (2005). A Mathematician at NIST Today. In B. A. CASE & A. M. LEGGETT (Eds.), Complexities: Women in Mathematics (pp. 314–327). Princeton University Press.]
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[https://www.maa.org/fern-y-hunt Fern Y. Hunt | Mathematical Association of America] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Fern}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American mathematicians Category:21st-century American mathematicians Category:African-American mathematicians Category:African-American women mathematicians Category:African-American women academics Category:21st-century African-American academics Category:21st-century American academics Category:Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences alumni Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:University of Utah faculty Category:Howard University faculty Category:Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Category:Fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics Category:20th-century American women mathematicians Category:21st-century American women mathematicians Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American academics Category:20th-century American academics Category:21st-century African-American women Category:21st-century American women academics Category:National Institute of Standards and Technology people