History of Math and Women

By darinonley

  • Maria Gaetana Agnesi

    Maria AgnesiHer main contribution to algebra was equations. Maria is best known for the curve called the "Witch of Agnesi". Maria wrote the equation y = a*sqrt(a*x-x*x)/x. She thought the x-axis to be the vertical axis and the y-axis to be the horizontal axis.

  • Mary FairFax Somerville

    Mary Fairfax SomervilleHer main contribution to algebra was the solving of Diaphantine equations. She obtained her interest of Algebra while reading a fashion magazine. She began her mathematical studies by reading Euclid’s Elements of Geometry and later she studied Newton’s Principia.

  • Florence Nightingale David

    Florence studied statistics. Florence found a job with Karl Pearson to work as a research assistant in his laboratory at the University College in London. In 1939, David became a senior statistician and experimental officer for the Research and Experiments Department, was a scientific advisor on mines for the Military Experimental Establishment and was a member on the Land Mines Committee, Ministry of Home Security and Scientific Advisory Council.

  • Susan Jane Cunningham

    Susan Cunningham studied mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College as a special student during 1866-67. In 1869, she helped create the astronomy and mathematics departments for the beginning of Swarthmore College and lead the departments until her retirement in 1906. She advanced from instructor to full professor and earned an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 1888 from Swarthmore.

  • Charlotte Angas Scott

    Charlotte Angas Scott studied at Cambridge but was not allowed to take her degree because she was a woman. After graduate work at Cambridge she became the first Head of Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

  • Grace Chisholm Young

    In 1895 at the age of 27, Grace Chisholm earned a Ph.D., magna cum laude, with a thesis named "Algebraisch-gruppentheoretische Untersuchungen zur sphärischen Trigonometrie" (Algebraic Groups of Spherical Trigonometry.) She was the first woman to officially receive a Ph.D. in Germany. Grace won the 1915 Gamble Prize at Cambridge, given by Girton College to distinguished alumnae, for her foundations of calculus essay.The most famous of her achievements is that she is identified with as the Denjoy.

  • Bird Margaret Turner

    Bird Margaret Turner studied mathematics at the University of West Virginia and completed additional summer studies at Harvard University in 1906 and Bethany College in 1908. At 36, she joined the University of West Virginia where she was a student assistant in mathematics and earned her B.A. degree two years later. She earned her master's degree in mathematics from the University of West Virginia in 1917. Turner completed her Ph.D. dissertation in 1920.

  • Elizabeth Morgan Cooper

    Elizabeth Morgan Cooper graduated from Radcliffe College in 1913 with an A.B., magna cum laude, in mathematics. She taught at the Baldwin School for girls from 1913 to 1927 and continued to take graduate studies in mathematics at Bryn Mawr College. In 1923, Cooper received her master’s degree. In 1930, she earned her Ph.D. with a thesis entitled "Perspective Elliptic Curves" written under the supervision of Arthur Coble.

  • Dorothy Maharam Stone

    In 1937, Dorothy Maharam received a B.S. degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology. She attended graduate school at Bryn Mawr College where she wrote her dissertation, "On measure in abstract sets." Dorothy attended Princeton and was a visiting Lecturer at Wellesley College. In 1952, she taught at the University of Manchester and taught as a professor at the University of Rochester from 1961 until retirement. Her research earned Dorothy a worldwide reputation as an outstanding mathematician.

  • Judith Roitman

    Judith Roitman began graduate studies in mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley and received her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1974. After teaching three years at Wellesley College, she spent a semester at the Institute for Advanced Study, then moved to the University of Kansas where she rose to the rank of full professor. She was the only woman in the department above the rank of instructor during her first eight years.