Johnny E. Brown (Brief Bio)

Johnny E. Brown was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean which he still loves today. From the early age of 12 he knew he wanted to become a mathematician. His math teachers in middle and high school were all black women who were extremely talently. They recognized his talent and nourished his dream. He graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics in 1973. He then obtained a master of arts in 1974 and a doctorate degree in 1979 from the University of Michigan. Professor Brown's first job was at Purdue University, where he still remains today. Having risen through the ranks from assistant professor (1979), to associate professor (1985), to professor (1990), he is the first African-American full professor in the mathematics department. He has received several Purdue and national teaching awards and was inducted in the Purdue "Book of Great Teachers" in 1999. His research area is complex analysis, with an emphasis on extremal problems. He served as a co-editor of a special issue of the journal "Complex Analysis, Theory & Applications." In 2003, along with Professors Rodrigo Bañuelos and Carl Cowen, he co-organized CAARMS 9 at Purdue.

Professor Brown has served on many departmental and University-wide committees over the years and has been recognized for his service to Purdue. He was head of the graduate program in mathematics for more than nine years - a position in which he was charged with running a program dealing with more than 160 graduate students. He also served a three year stint as Associate Head of the Department of Mathematics at Purdue during the time Rodrigo Bañuelos served as Head of the Department - a rare combination at an R1 institution. His hobbies include playing the guitar and chess. He enjoys his career and spends a lot of his time in his office in the Mathematical Sciences Building.