J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.

Biographical information

Born in 1923, J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. entered the University of Chicago at age 13, and received his Ph.D. at age 19. His first job was teaching mathematics at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). He co-discovered the Wigner-Wilkins approach for estimating the distribution of neutron energies in nuclear reactors in 1944 (declassified in 1948). He worked with Fermi and Compton on the Manhattan Project (without knowing the ultimate goal of the work until after the atomic bomb was dropped) in the early 1940s. Distinguished Professor of Applied Mathematical Physics at Howard University in 1970. He was the second African American to be elected to the National Academy of Engineers in 1976. He published more than 100 papers on differential geometry, linear differential equations, integrals, nuclear engineering, gamma radiation shielding, and optics. He passed away at age 87 in 2011.