Math professor Dewey Taylor earns national award for mentorship activities

By Sian Wilkerson

Dewey Taylor, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics in Virginia Commonwealth University's College of Humanities and Sciences, has been recognized by the Association for Women in Mathematics for the worldwide reach of her mentorship activities.

On Jan. 8, Taylor will be presented with the 2025 M. Gweneth Humphreys Award at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle.

"This honor means the world to me," Taylor said. "I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many women students. I really consider this award to be their accomplishment, not my own. I love seeing students grow and succeed, and I am really honored to have been able to help so many women in mathematics. I'm not sure who has learned more - me or them."

During her career, Taylor has served as a regional director for the Center for Undergraduate Research for Mathematics and co-founded an international math symposium, which has created opportunities for students in underserved countries. Taylor, who earned her undergraduate math degree at VCU, has mentored more than 200 undergraduate women, and many of them have gone on to graduate studies in mathematics, biostatistics, medicine, engineering and other fields. Many also have become math educators.

Taylor was recognized by VCU with the 2022 University Distinguished Teaching Award and by the Council on Undergraduate Research with the 2023 Mathematical, Computing and Statistical Sciences Division Mentor Award. She also received the 2024 John M. Smith Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America's Maryland-D.C.-Virginia Section.

Taylor is the first professor from VCU to win her latest award, which was named for mathematician and professor Mabel Gweneth Humphreys. Throughout her long career, Humphreys taught mathematics to women, spending more than 30 years at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg. The award, which is funded by contributions from former students and colleagues at Randolph-Macon, was established in recognition of Humphreys' commitment to and profound influence on undergraduate students of mathematics.

"Serving as a mentor is important to me because this can make all the difference for a student," Taylor said. "I was not the student who tried new things or sought out opportunities because I was too scared, so being able to help students to feel differently than I did has always been my top priority as a teacher and mentor."