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Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Even though her contribution to mathematics are very important, Maria Gaetana Agnesi was not a typical famous mathematician. She led a quite simple life and she gave up mathematics very early. At first glance her life may seem to be boring, however, considering the circumstances in which she was raised, her accomplishments to mathematics are glorious. -
Hertha Marks Ayrton
Phoebe Sarah Marks was born in Portsea, England in 1854. She changed her first name to Hertha when she was a teenager. After passing the Cambridge University Examination for Women with honors in English and mathematics, she attended Girton College at Cambridge University, the first residential college for women in England. Charlotte Scott also attended Girton at this time, and she and Marks helped form a mathematics club to "find problems for the club to solve and 'discuss any mathematical quest -
Charlotte Barnum
Charlotte Cynthia Barnum was born in Phillipston, Massachusetts, the daughter of the Reverand Samuel Weed Barnum and Charlotte Betts Barnum. Her early education was by private study and her preparation for college was at the Hillhouse School in New Haven. She graduated from Vassar College in 1881. After various teaching positions at Bett's Academy (Stamford, Connecticut), Hillhouse School, and Smith College, where she taught astronomy, Barnum returned to study mathematics, astronomy, and physics -
Clara Latimer Bacon
Clara Latimer Bacon was born in Hillsgrove, McDonough County, Illinois of a pioneer New England family. She was graduated from Hedding College, Abingdon, Illinois in 1886. After a year of teaching she entered Wellesley College. In 1890 she received her B.A. degree from Wellesley College, then taught secondary school in Kentucky for one year and in Illinois for five years. In 1897, at the invitation of Dr. Goucher, she began teaching at the Women's College of Baltimore (now Goucher College) as an -
Grace Marie Bareis
Born in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Received her A.B. degree (first honors) from Heidelberg College, Tifton, Ohio in 1897. She was a graduate student at Bryn Mawr College from 1897 to 1899 and also did graduate work at Columbia University. From 1902 until 1906 she taught mathematics and science at Miss Roney's School in Philadelphia, PA. She then became a graduate student at The Ohio State University, and in 1909 became the first person (male or female) to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from The Ohi -
Florence Eliza Allen
Florence Allen was born on October 4, 1876 in Horicon, Wisconsin. She received her undergraduate and master degrees at the University of Wisconsin in 1900 and 1901, respectively. In 1907 she became the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the fourth Ph.D. overall from that department. Her thesis was entitled "The cycle involutions of third order determined by nets of curves of deficiency 0, 1, and 2." It was published in the Quarterly Journal -
Annie Dale Biddle Andrews
Annie Dale Biddle was born in Hanford, California, the youngest child of Samuel E. Biddle and A. A. Biddle. She received her B.A. degree from the University of California in 1908, and in 1911 she became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley. Her dissertation, written under the joint supervision of Derrick Lehmer and Mellen Haskell, was on "Constructive theory of the unicursal plane quartic by synthetic methods" -
Nina Karlovna Bari
Nina Karlovna Bari was a woman whose contribution to mathematics was great. She lived in a period when mathematics started to become more and more popular in Russia. She gained the respect from all mathematicians of her time not only because of her work but also because of her excellent personality. -
Mabel Schmeiser Barnes
Mabel Schmeiser was born in Wapello, Iowa. She always enjoyed mathematics, beginning with her education in a one-room country school in Iowa. She entered Cornell College, however, with the intention of majoring in Latin. Taking calculus changed her mind and she graduated from Cornell in 1926 with a B.A. degree in mathematics. She received her M.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1928, and her Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 1931 with a dissertation on "Some Properties Of Arbit -
Ruth Aaronson Bari
Ruth Bari earned a Master's degree at John Hopkins in 1943 but because of work and family responsibilities, did not complete her Ph.D. until 1966. Her dissertation was on "Absolute reducibility of maps of at most 19 regions". She taught at George Washington University until her retirement in 1988. Her work in graph theory has been recognized as influential, especially in the area of chromatic polynomials. One of her three daughters is Gina Kolata, one of the nation's best known scienc
