UMBC president Freeman Hrabowski discusses science for women and minorities

Mathematician-turned-university-president Freeman A. Hrabowski III is known for encouraging minority students to pursue science and engineering careers. When the head of University of Maryland Baltimore County started as vice provost in 1987, black and Hispanic students were struggling in science at the school, he says. He helped launch the Meyerhoff Scholars Program for young black males in science and engineering fields in 1988; since then, it has expanded to include people of both sexes and all races. UMBC, a predominantly white university, is now a national leader in the number of minority graduates who go on to earn doctorates in medicine, the sciences and engineering.

Hrabowski, 59, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., where he marched for civil rights and was arrested and jailed for five days at age 12. He graduated from Hampton University in Virginia at age 19 with a mathematics degree. He went on to earn a master's and a doctorate from the University of Illinois. He has been president of UMBC since 1992. In November, Time magazine named Hrabowski one of the 10 best college presidents, and in May Harvard gave him an honorary degree for his work with minority students, among other achievements. We spoke to Hrabowski about molding young scientists.

-- Rachel Saslow

What spurred your interest in mathematics?

I was fortunate to grow up in a middle-class home with two hardworking parents who enjoyed both reading and mathematics. My mother was an English teacher who decided to become a math teacher, and she used me as a guinea pig at home. My father had been a math teacher and then went to work at a steel mill because, frankly, he could make more money doing that.

Also, my principal at Ullman High School in Birmingham was a mathematician. He would write a problem on the board each day for the gifted kids in the school and we would get little presents -- a nickel or a dime, something like that -- if we solved it that day. I was always determined to get it because I wanted a Tootsie Roll. That principal, Mr. George Bell, was a symbol for us of what it meant to be smart. And powerful.

Did you experience any discrimination in the classroom?

The problem came when my mother sent me to a high school in Springfield, Mass., to have an integrated experience in the summer, and no one would talk to me. I was the only black in the class. Now, I was allowed to be in the class, which was different than Birmingham in 1963.

In all my classes [in Springfield], teachers would not call on me and kids wouldn't speak to me. I could be the only student raising his hand and the teacher wouldn't call on me; he'd look right through me. My parents taught me that I didn't have the time to be a victim and to take the education that I needed and move on. And the education was superb.

Do African Americans face specific challenges that make them less likely to excel in science?