Rudy Lee Horne (1968 – 2017) was an American mathematician and professor of mathematics at Morehouse College. He worked on dynamical systems, including nonlinear waves. He was the mathematics consultant for the film Hidden Figures.[2]
Rudy Horne | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rudy Lee Horne |
| Education | Crete-Monee High School |
| Alma mater | University of Colorado Boulder (PhD) University of Oklahoma |
| Known for | Nonlinear optics Hidden Figures |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Morehouse College University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Florida State University California State University, East Bay |
| Thesis | Collision-Induced Timing Jitter and Four-Wave Mixing in Wavelength-Division Multiplexing Soliton Systems (2001) |
| Doctoral advisor | Mark J. Ablowitz[1] |
Early life and education
Horne grew up in the south side of Chicago.[3] His father worked at Sherwin-Williams.[4] He graduated from Crete-Monee High School.[2][5] He completed a double degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Oklahoma in 1991.[6][3] He joined the University of Colorado Boulder for his postgraduate studies, earning a master's in physics in 1994 and in mathematics in 1996. He completed his doctorate, Collision induced timing jitter and four-wave mixing in wavelength division multiplexing soliton systems, in 2001 which was supervised by Mark J. Ablowitz.[1][7] He was the first African American to graduate from the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Applied Mathematics.[8]
Career and research
After completing his PhD, Horne had a position at the California State University, East Bay.[2] before working as postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with Chris Jones.[9] Horne joined Florida State University in 2005.[8][10] Horne joined Morehouse College in 2010 and was promoted to associate professor of mathematics in 2015.[2] He continued to study four-wave mixing.[11] His work considered nonlinear optical phenomena.[9][12][13] He uncovered effects in parity-time symmetric systems.[14]
Horne was recommended to serve as a mathematics consultant for Hidden Figures by Morehouse College.[15][16] He worked closely with Theodore Melfi ensured the actors knew how to pronounce "Euler's".[2][17][18][19][20][21] He spent four months working with 20th Century Fox.[8] In particular, Horne worked with Taraji P. Henson on the mathematics she required for her role as Katherine Johnson.[22][23] He taught the cast how to get excited by mathematics.[24] His handwriting is on screen during a scene at the beginning of the film where Katherine Johnson solves a quadratic equation.[3] He appeared on the interview series In the Know.[25] Horne completed a Mathematical Association of America Maths Fest tour where he discussed the mathematics in Hidden Figures, focusing on the calculations that concerned Glenn's orbit around in 1962.[26][27] He appeared on NPR's Closer Look.[28]
He died on December 11, 2017, after surgery for a torn aorta.[29][30][2] The University of Colorado Boulder established a Rudy Lee Horne Memorial Fellowship in his honour.[8][31] He was described as a "rock star", inspiring generations of black students.[32][22] He was awarded the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) lifetime achievement award posthumously in 2018,[33] and was recognized by Mathematically Gifted & Black as a Black History Month 2018 Honoree.[4]