Josephine Guidy Wandja

1st African woman to get PhD in Mathematics

Who is Josephine Guidy Wandja?

Josephine Guidy Wandja’s Early Life and Education

Joséphine Guidy Wandja was born in 1920 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast as Joséphine Wandja and she adopted the name Joséphine Guidy-Wandja after her marriage. She spent the first fourteen years of her life in Cameroon before the family moved to France where she attended school and then pursued a career. a town between Tours and Poitiers.

Châtellerault is about 300 km southwest of Paris. After a year of studying at this school, in 1960, Joséphine obtained the Brevet d’études de Premier Cycle, given to students after they passed their exams in mathematics, French, and history/geography.

After studying in Châtellerault, Wandja attended the Lycée Fenelon, the first girls’ high school in Paris founded in 1892. At the Lycée Jules Ferry, founded in 1913, she attended courses for the first and second parts of the Baccalaureate at the Lycée Jules Ferry where she also prepared for entering the Grandes Écoles. She also studied General Mathematics and Physics at the Université Pierre et Marie-Curie.

Josephine Guidy Wandja’s Legacy and Impact on the World

Joséphine Guidy Wandja is an Ivorian mathematician. She is known for her work as a mathematician and educator. She became the first African woman with a Ph.D. in mathematics, and the first African woman to teach mathematics at the university level. She has been called “Ivory Coast’s foremost mathematician.”


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