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Jacqueline Akinpelu (born 1953) Jacqueline Akinpelu grew up in Winston Salem, North Carolina in the 1960s. S

After her graduate studies, Akinpelu was hired by AT&T’s Bell Laboratories. During her more than 25-year career there, she held various positions, eventually overseeing a team of over 200 people and a budget of up to $36 million. During this time, she modeled the behavior of a new methodology for planning and managing telephone network call capacity under non-engineered traffic conditions. She also worked with a team to develop strategies for maintaining the network’s stability under all network conditions. This work was vital to the evolution of AT&T’s long-distance network. She also had a great influence on improving the workplace environment at AT&T and shaped their minority recruitment program.

In 2006, Akinpelu joined the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) as an intelligence systems engineer. She built an outreach program between JHUAPL and Morgan State University in order to prepare their students for professional careers. In 2009, she received the Women of Color Technology Award for Career Achievement in Government. Over her industrial career, Akinpelu used algebra, operations research, probability and statistics, and stochastic models for her various projects.

Click here for a video interview with Meet a Mathematician!

Education and career
She got a BA in mathematics from Duke University in 1975, graduating magna cum laude. She received her PhD in Mathematical Sciences in 1980 from Johns Hopkins University, where she wrote her thesis on a topic in inventory systems management.

Awards

 * 2019 Honoree Black History Month
 * 2017 Heritage Award
 * 2009 Women of Color Award Winner

Editor private notes
Jacqueline (Jackie) Akinpelu is featured for her contributions to research mathematics; mathematics in business, industry, and government; to establishing, cultivating, and sustaining mathematical communities; and to increasing the participation of women and underrepresented groups.


 * Mathematicians of the African Diaspora

Jacqueline Akinpelu Assistant Branch Supervisor

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

I grew up in 1960’s in Winston Salem, NC. in a low-income, single parent household. At the time, the schools in Winston-Salem were segregated but, due primarily to the dedication of my teachers and my own motivation, I received a very strong public school education. For as long as I can remember, even before I started school, I had a love for mathematics. I think there was something about both the logic of math and the fact that in math there was a “right answer” that appealed to me (clearly before I knew about stochastic mathematics). For a long time, I wanted to be a math teacher, but in high school I started to think about working in jobs where I could “apply” mathematics (though I only had a vague idea of what that meant).

at the Johns Hopkins University that I got my first real exposure to “applied mathematics,” and I completed a doctoral thesis on a topic in inventory systems management.

In 1980 I joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ. Eventually I had a 25- year career at Bell Laboratories and, after the breakup of the Bell System, AT&T Laboratories. Two projects during this time stand out for me as highlights of my career in the mathematical sciences. My first project at Bell Laboratories was to model the behavior of a new methodology for planning and managing telephone network call capacity under non-engineered traffic conditions, and to work with a team to develop strategies for maintaining the network’s stability under all network conditions. This was one of my first opportunities to apply my mathematics expertise to solve a real-world problem – and I learned a lot about how to tackle an ill-defined problem and achieve tangible results. I also learned a lot about working in a team and effectively communicating technical information. The second project was to model the performance of a proposed signaling protocol for voice switched networks. This was another opportunity to use my expertise in mathematical sciences, this time to develop effective message flow control mechanisms, but it also gave me the opportunity to work in a team on the international level through participation in standards body deliberations. Building on my technical successes, I went on to become a manager, leading organizations responsible for providing technology for planning, engineering, provisioning and maintenance of the AT&T long distance network.

During my time at AT&T I learned the importance of mentoring. I have mentored hundreds of people over my career, first at AT&T and, more recently, at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), where I continued my career after leaving AT&T. I'm proud of the outreach that I built at JHUAPL to Morgan State University, which includes mentoring students to prepare them for professional careers and developing research partnerships with the university. I have also worked to improve the work environment for all employees, both at AT&T and JHUAPL. I sincerely believe that we have an obligation to create work environments where those coming behind us can be successful, and to return to our communities to share what we have learned.