Operations research and financial engineering professor William Massey '77 was named the second most frequently cited black mathematicians in the world, according to a recent study conducted by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
The study measures how often a particular academic, taken from a list of 96 well-respected black scholars in the field of mathematics, is used as a research reference by his peers.
Massey, who has published more than 50 papers on applied probability analysis, was cited 59 times in academic journals in 2004.
This study was one of a series of regular publications about black scholars from a range of fields. The journal usually conducts reviews of all major African-American scholars in social sciences and the humanities every spring.
Though this is not the first time citation analysis has been used as a tool by the journal for measuring the influence of black scholars, it is the first time the journal has studied the field of mathematics in such a way, said Bruce Slater, the journal's managing editor.
"You certainly like to see more African-Americans out there working in mathematics," Massey said. "I'm certainly happy to have the honor. It's nice to know your work is taken seriously."
Massey's research deals with queueing theory, a discipline invented to study telephone systems. His current research concerns telephone call centers.
One common application of his work deals with call center staffing issues, such as how many telephone call agents a call center might need to hire given an average demand. Massey's research is exceptional in that it deals primarily with time-varying rates rather than static numbers, assuming that demand will change over time.
Though the study did not concern itself with the frequency with which black scholars were cited in comparison to their peers of other races, Slater felt that the study is still a significant indication of the amount of esteem afforded black academics by their peers.
"The study is a good representation of how well-respected a particular scholar is in his field," Slater said.
While an undergraduate at Princeton, Massey earned an A.B. in mathematics. He then received a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1981 as a recipient of the Bell Labs Cooperative Research Fellowship. Massey then worked as an engineer at Bell Labs for more than 20 years before returning to Princeton to teach in 2001.
Though The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has no formal plans for a repeat of the study, a follow-up analysis is a possibility.
Clifford Johnson of the University of South California and Emery Brown of Harvard were also named in the top three most-cited black mathematicians.
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