User:LMnaintnop/Bonita V. Saunders

Dr. Bonita Valerie Saunders is an African-American mathematician born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia in the 1960s.

Early Life and Education
Dr. Saunders attended the College of William and Mary where she studied mathematics as an undergraduate. Dr. Saunders initially wanted to be a math teacher, but when she received an acceptance letter from the graduate Department of Mathematics from the University of Virginia, she halted her plans to become a teacher and decided to further study advanced mathematics.

After receiving her first Master's in mathematics from the University of Virginia, Dr. Saunders began to teach at Norfolk State University. As Dr. Saunders taught mathematics at Norfolk State University, she pursued her second master's in computational and applied mathematics at Old Dominion University part-time. Unbeknownst to her at the time, the Department of Mathematics at Old Dominion University enrolled Dr. Saunders into their PhD program because they saw her potential as a student within their doctoral program. She decided to stay in the doctoral program although she only planned to complete her second Master's. During her studies as a student in the mathematics PhD program, she researched at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Her research with NASA's Langley Research Center included boundary-fitted grid generation, numerical solution of partial differential equations, and visualization of special functions. During her time at NASA, Dr. Saunders received her PhD in computational and applied mathematics from Old Dominion University in 1985 and was the first woman to do so and the first Black American to do so.

Career and Research
After receiving her PhD, Dr. Saunders moved to Washington D.C. and worked at BDM Corporation as a programmer analyst and defense contractor. In 1989, she joined the Applied and Computational Mathematics Division (ACMD) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) where she conducted theoretical and applied research.

Dr. Saunders is currently the principal developer of graphics for the Digital Library of Mathematical Functions (DLMF) at NIST. Some projects that she is involved in include where she and her team utilizes 600 graphs and visualizations of complex functions, use advanced research in interactive three-dimensional web graphics and dynamic interactive visualizations of elementary and higher mathematical functions over both simply and multiply connected domains. These two projects are what Dr. Saunders are currently working on at DLMF as the project leader and the visualization editor: DLMF Standard Reference Tables on Demand (DLMF Tables) and Visualization of Complex Functions Data.

Honors and Awards
Dr. Saunders has received honors and awards over the years among which are:


 * Fellow, Washington Academy of Sciences, elected 2019.
 * Washington Academy of Sciences 2019 Award for Excellence in Research in Mathematics and Computer Science
 * 2018 Black History Month honoree, Network of Minorities in Mathematical Sciences
 * 2017 NIST Information Technology Laboratory Outstanding Contribution Award for excellence in technical leadership
 * Nineteenth Conference for African American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS 19), featured speaker, San Diego, CA, (2013)
 * US Department of Commerce Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement, (2011)
 * 2011 Government Computer News Award for Outstanding Information Technology Achievement
 * 2001 National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) Claytor Lecture, Joint Mathematics Meetings, New Orleans, LA.

Finally, Dr. Saunders was honored and featured on American Mathematical Society's (AMS) Mathematically Gifted & Black poster in 2018.