02/05/2025
It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we inform you of the death of our colleague and friend, Emory University's Department of Mathematics Professor Victoria (Vicki) Powers. Vicki passed away at her home on February 2, 2025, from complications due to ALS, just a year after receiving the diagnosis.
Vicki is well-known to many of us in Emory College for her incredible record of contributions to our institution. Vicki was born at Emory University Hospital in 1958, and grew up in Atlanta, Florida and New Jersey. She went to college at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1980. Vicki and her husband, Colm Mulcahy both completed PhDs from Cornell University in 1985 under the direction of Alex FTW Rosenberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_F._T._W._Rosenberg), himself a student to Irving Kaplansky. She then spent two years at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, before joining Emory in 1987. Vicki loved to joke that she got the job because she was interviewed across the road from where she was born. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1993 and to Full Professor in 2006. Vicki was the first woman internally promoted to Full Professor in the history of the Department of Math.
Vicki’s impact at Emory has been truly remarkable. Within the department, Vicki served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) 1996–2006, co-DUS 2010–2013, and she served on the ECAS Educational Policy Committee 2011-2014. She spearheaded development of several new courses, including a critically important Calculus for Life Sciences (MATH 115/116), and a popular Math and Politics Freshman Seminar. Vicki served on the Honor Code Committee 1999-2000, as Faculty Advisor to the Honor Council 1998-2000 and 2006-2013, and was an Honor Code Liaison 2002-2024. Vicki served on the Goodrich C. White Scholarship Selection Committee, the Goldwater Scholarship Selection Committee, the McMullen Award Committee, the Woodruff Natural Sciences Selection Committee, Emory Scholars Selection, and SIRE Committees.
At the graduate level, Vicki founded a Graduate Student Seminar in 1997, served on the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship Selection Committee, and regularly served as teaching mentor for graduate student instructors. She had four PhD students, all women. Three of them later obtained university faculty positions, and the fourth became a high school mathematics teacher. Her mentorship of entire cohorts of graduate students is legendary, sharing her passion for teaching with Graduate TA’s, many of whom have developed into outstanding mentors themselves. Needless to say, her own student advisees revere her, and have expressed numerous times their gratitude for the nurture and care they experienced under Vicki’s tutelage.
At the faculty level, Vicki served on the President’s Commission on Status of Women 1999-2002 (including Chair of Faculty Concerns Committee 2001-2002), the ECAS strategic planning committee’s Faculty Excellence Working group (which she co-chaired 2015-2016), the University Faculty Life Course committee 2016-2019, and the ECAS Grievance Committee 2020-2023. Vicki’s impact on faculty development has also been felt by her service on the ECAS Tenure & Promotion Committee (2007-2010, and 2022-2024), the Lecture Track Promotion Committee (2018-2021), the President’s Advisory Committee (2010-2013), and as a senator for the ECAS Faculty Senate (2015-2016). Of all her college service, she particularly enjoyed her work on the tenure and promotion committee, often commenting how amazed she was at the range and quality of the scholarship of her colleagues across the campus.
In her scholarly work, Vicki’s initial training and expertise in ordered fields and the algebraic theory of quadratic forms gave way to research in an important area of mathematics known as algebraic geometry. In particular, she is known for her work on positive polynomials, and she also developed a passion for the mathematics of voting systems. She is the author of numerous papers, and the recent Springer Book, Certificates of Positivity for Real Polynomials – Theory, Practice and Applications published in 2021. She frequently travelled for collaborations and conferences throughout the USA and Canada, as well as to Europe, especially France and Germany. She also gave numerous workshops including some in Nigeria. For more details on Vicki’s education and career, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Powers
We have collectively served for 33 years as Chair of departments in which Vicki has been a faculty member and have observed Vicki’s contributions first hand. This brief remembrance cannot fully express what an outstanding scholar and truly giving and devoted colleague, leader and mentor Vicki has been in her career at Emory. Those who were fortunate to know her can attest to the fact that Vicki’s willingness to give to the Emory community and her collegiality were unmatched. We will miss her more than words can express.
Vicki is survived by a loving family that includes her husband Colm Mulcahy, and their daughters Ann Powers and Molly Mulcahy.
In due course, the family will host an event to remember Vicki. We will share details when they become available.
Condolences may be directed to [email protected]. No flowers please.
If you wish, you can make a donation in Vicki’s name, to these charities of her choice:
Doctors Without Borders, https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/cro-26-paidsearch
World Central Kitchen, https://wck.org/donate
-Written by
Dwight Duffus, Mathematics Professor Emeritus
Jim Nagy, Mathematics Department Chair
Vaidy Sunderam, Computer Science Department Chair
