David Blackwell

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David was born on April 24, 1919 in Centralia, Illinois. David was the oldest of the four children; he grew up in Centralia, Illinois. David Blackwell was always quick with mathematics but he did not care for algebra or trigonometry. He only found math interesting, but only Geometry caught his attention. At the age sixteen, David began to get his mathematics degree at the University of Illinois. However, David parents were very sure that he could attend a college of his choice. For David he took jobs to help pay for his college payments, and earn his bachelor’s degree in three years by attending summer classes. David earned his bachelor’s degree in a shorter time. By the age 22, David earned his PhD in mathematics for writing a thesis on the …show more content…

David served as Rosenwald Post doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for a full year. He already knew he was going to start his teaching; he planned on elementary or high school. Therefore, for his plan he sent 105 letters to each black college in the looking for a teaching position. Out of the 105 letters sent, Blackwell received only three teaching job offers. The schools were Southern University, West Virginia State College, and Clark College. David picked Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana but David did teach at Clark for a year. In 1944, he teaches at Howard University in Washington, D.C and it only took him only three years for Blackwell to become a full professor. He was promoted to full professor in the year of 1947 he served as head of the department of mathematics in the year 1954. Blackwell takes credit in the 1945 ASA sponsored lecture by Abe Girshick with turning his interests toward statistics. Blackwell remained in Howard until 1954. Then he took up the professorship in U.C. Berkeley’s. In 1956, Blackwell became the chair holder in the Berkeley of Department of

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