Pamela E. Harris


Pamela Estephania Harris is a Mexican-American mathematician, educator and advocate for immigrants. She is an assistant professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and co-founder of the online platform Lathisms. She is also an editor of the e-mentoring blog of the American Mathematical Society.

Early life and career

Harris first emigrated with her family from Mexico to the United States when she was 8 years old. They returned to Mexico, before eventually settling in Wisconsin when Harris was 12. Because she was undocumented, she could not attend university. Instead, she studied at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, where she earned two associate degrees in two and a half years. After she married a US citizen and her immigration status changed, she transferred to Marquette University, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics. She went on to complete her master's degree and in 2012 a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her PhD dissertation was advised by Jeb F. Willenbring. Harris was a Project NExT fellow in 2012. She became a Davies Research Fellow at the United States Military Academy and, in 2016, an assistant professor at Williams College.
Harris studies algebraic combinatorics, in particular the representation of Lie algebras. In order to understand this representation she studies vector partition functions, in particular Kostant's partition function. She is also interested in graph theory and number theory. In 2016 she co-founded an online platform called 'Lathisms' which aims to promote the contributions of Latinxs and Hispanics in the Mathematical Sciences.

Recognition

In 2020, Harris was selected as part of the inaugural class of Karen EDGE Fellows. In 2019, Harris won the Mathematical Association of America Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member, for her mentorship towards undergraduate research and for being a "fierce advocate for a diverse and inclusive mathematics community." She further received the early career Faculty Mentor Award from the Council of Undergraduate Research in the Mathematics and Computer Sciences Division.
She gave one of the Mathematical Association of America Invited Addresses at the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings. In 2019 she was a featured speaker at the national conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.
In 2018 Harris was featured in the book .