Phyllis Zweig Chinn (née Zweig; born September 26, 1941) is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who holds a professorship in mathematics,

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

, and teaching preparation at

Cal Poly Humboldt California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt or Humboldt) is a public university in Arcata, California. It is one of three polytechnic universities in the California State University (CSU) system and the northernmost c ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Her publications concern

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...

, and the history of

women in mathematics This is a timeline of women in mathematics. Timeline Classical Age * Before 350: Pandrosion, a Greeks, Greek mathematician known for an approximate solution to doubling the cube and a simplified exact solution to the construction of the geometr ...

.Curriculum vitae
, retrieved 2015-01-17.

Education and career

Chinn was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

and graduated in 1962 from

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

. She earned her Ph.D. in 1969 from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

with a dissertation on

graph isomorphism In graph theory, an isomorphism of graphs ''G'' and ''H'' is a bijection between the vertex sets of ''G'' and ''H'' : f \colon V(G) \to V(H) such that any two vertices ''u'' and ''v'' of ''G'' are adjacent in ''G'' if and only if f(u) and f(v) a ...

supervised by Paul Kelly. She taught at Towson State College, a training school for teachers in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, from 1969 to 1975, and earned tenure there in 1974, before moving to Cal Poly Humboldt. At the time she joined the Cal Poly Humboldt faculty, she was the first female mathematics professor there; the only other female professor in the sciences was a

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. In 1997 she became chair of the mathematics department at Cal Poly Humboldt.

Contributions

Chinn has written highly cited work on

graph bandwidth In graph theory, the graph bandwidth problem is to label the vertices of a graph with distinct integers so that the quantity \max\ is minimized ( is the edge set of ). The problem may be visualized as placing the vertices of a graph at distin ...

dominating set In graph theory, a dominating set for a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph is a subset of its vertices, such that any vertex of is in , or has a neighbor in . The domination number is the number of vertices in a smallest dominating set for ...

s, and on bandwidth. Chinn is also an avid

juggler Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

, and founded a juggling club at Cal Poly Humboldt in the 1980s.

Recognition

Cal Poly Humboldt named Chinn as Outstanding Professor for 1988–1989. She was the 2010 winner of the

Louise Hay Award The Louise Hay Award is a mathematics award planned in 1990 and first issued in 1991 by the Association for Women in Mathematics in recognition of contributions as a math educator. The award was created in honor of Louise Hay. Recipients The fo ...

for Contributions to Mathematics Education, given by the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

, for her work in improving mathematics education at the middle and high school levels and encouraging young women to become mathematicians.Twentieth Annual Louise Hay Award

, retrieved 2015-01-17.

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinn, Phyllis Zweig 1941 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians Graph theorists American historians of mathematics American mathematics educators Brandeis University alumni Towson University faculty California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt faculty 20th-century American women mathematicians