Women of Math

Maria Gaetana Agnesi

May 16, 1718

~Maria Gaetana Agnesi is best known from the curve called the "Witch of 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.
~Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan on May 16, 1718, to a wealthy and literate family. She was the oldest of the 21 children that her father, a rich merchant, had with his three wives.

Charlotte Barnum

May 17, 1860

~After receiving her Ph.D., Barnum taught mathematics for one year at Carleton College.
~Between 1898 and 1913, she held various jobs in the insurance industry as an actuary, at the U.S. Naval Observatory, the U.S. Coast and Geodesic Survey, and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an editor for the Biological Survey.
~Her dissertation was on "Functions Having Lines or Surfaces of Discontinuity." Barnun joined the American Mathematical Society

Agnes Baxter

Mar 18, 1870

~Agnes Baxter was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
~She was a student at Dalhousie University from 1887 to 1892. In 1891 she received her BA with first class honours in Mathematics, the first woman to receive this distinction at Dalhousie, and was the winner of the Sir William Young Gold Medal. In 1892,
~she received an MA in Mathematics, also from Dalhousie.

Grace M. Bareis

Dec 19, 1875

~ From 1902 until 1906 she taught mathematics and science at Miss Roney's School in Philadelphia, PA.
~ In December, 1915, Bareis attended the organizational meeting for the purpose of establishing the Mathematical Association of America.
~ In 1935 Bareis was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Heidelberg College.

Dorothy Muad Wrinch

Sep 12, 1894

~ Dorothy Wrinch was a mathematician who made contributions to the areas of mathematics, philosophy, physics, and biochemistry.
~In 1918 Wrinch took the first- and second-year mathematical honor students at University College, London.
~She also became the first woman to qualify for a university lectureship in mathematics at Oxford which meant that her lectures were open to male students.

Elizabeth Scott

Nov 23, 1917

~Elizabeth L. Scott was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but her family moved to Berkeley, California, when she was 4 years old.
~She attended school at University High School associated with the University of California, Berkeley. There she was the only girl in the advanced mathematics courses.
~ In 1951 she was appointed to the faculty in the Department of Mathematics at Berkeley where she spent the rest of her professional career.

Abigail Thompson

Jun 30, 1958

~She is the director of the California State Summer School in Mathematics and Science at UC Davis, a month-long residential program for talented high school students.
~Thompson was awarded the 2003 Satter Prize from the American Mathematical Society.
~The Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics is awarded to Abigail Thompson for her outstanding work in 3-dimensional topology.