Mary Deconge
Sister Mary Sylvester Deconge (born 1933) is an American mathematician. She was the 15th African-American woman to earn her Ph.D. in mathematics.[1]
Early life and education
Deconge was born in 1933 in Wickliff, Louisiana. She joined the Sisters of the Holy Family at age 16, later becoming a nun in the Holy Order of the Sisters of Saint Francis. Between 1952 and 1955, Deconge taught elementary school in parochial schools in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. She then attended Seton Hill College where she studied mathematics and science. In 1962, Deconge received a master's degree in mathematics from Louisiana State University. In 1968, she received her Ph.D. in mathematics from St. Louis University for her dissertation 2-Normed Lattices and 2-Metric Spaces.[1]
Career
While in graduate school, Deconge worked as a teacher at Holy Ghost High School in Opelousas, Louisiana and Delisle Junior College in New Orleans. After receiving her Ph.D. she worked as an assistant professor of mathematics at Loyola University New Orleans from 1968 to 1971. In 1971 she became an assistant professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge.[1]
Sister Mary Sylvester has had her work published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The Notices of the American Mathematical Society, and the Journal of Mathematical Analytical Applications. She is known for her publications related to Cauchy's Problem for Higher-Order Abstract Parabolic Equations.[1]