Apr 26, 2005 - Claremont, Calif. -

Gwen Morgan Spencer has been awarded the prestigious Watson Fellowship for one year of post-baccalaureate study outside the United States.

Spencer is a Harvey Mudd College (HMC) senior who will graduate May 15, 2005, with her bachelor of science degree in mathematics. She earned the Watson Fellowship with her proposal, "Reinterpreting the Gender of Science and Technology in Emerging Economies," and will travel to Tanzania, Swaziland, Kenya, India and Ireland for 12 months (pending the United States' removing travel restrictions to Kenya).

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowships (http://www.watsonfellowship.org) were established by the family of the late founder of International Business Machines Corp. (IBM). The $22,000 awards allow recent college graduates to perform 12 months of independent study in an area of the world of their choosing. The recipient must agree to remain outside the United States and actively engaged in their project for the full 12 months. Recipients are chosen from nominations made by their colleges.

Hal S. Barron, professor of history at HMC and liaison to the Watson Foundation for the nomination process, said of Spencer: "It takes a certain kind of person to earn this award. They must demonstrate self-reliance, independence, flexibility and intellect. Gwen will be a wonderful representative for Harvey Mudd College."

Spencer said of the opportunity: "One of the main goals of my project is to understand the potency of science education and information technology as an agent in gender politics. Education for women is essential to establishing sustainable practices in emerging economies, and technical education for women is an important step towards breaking down the economic barriers between the sexes."

She will leave in late July and return at least one year later. As a high school student, she participated in a student ambassador exchange program in the Republic of Belarus through Mt. Rainier High School in Des Moines, Wash. "I was in Belarus for around five weeks," she recalled, "and feel that this experience was formative for me. Seeing a way of life much different from my own taught me both to appreciate the privileges of U.S. citizenship and to think critically about the values of our media and modern culture."

Spencer achieved a top-500 score in this year's William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, which is described as "the world's toughest math test." Her senior mathematics thesis is titled, "Combinatorial Consequences of Relatives of the LSB Theorem." Her research deals with two triumvirates of fixed-point-theorems, the most famous of which are topological. By exploring the connections between these theorems, she aims to extend topological proofs of combinatorial results in order to obtain generalizations of those results. Her thesis advisor is HMC Associate Professor of Mathematics Francis Su, who was the first recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2004.

In 2005, Spencer gave talks on her research at the joint meetings of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Nebraska Conference for Women Undergraduates in Mathematics. As a student at HMC, she earned the Robert James Prize for outstanding freshman mathematics student, as well as the Freshman Writing Prize and the Platt Freshman Prize, which is given to a first-year student who distinguishes herself/himself through academic accomplishments and contributions to the life of the college.

In fall 2006, Spencer will enroll as a Ph.D. student at Cornell University in the Operations Research and Industrial Engineering Department, where she will be supported by a Cornell Graduate Fellowship.