Anna Stafford

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Anna Adelaide Stafford (born August 20, 1905 in Chicago , † November 28, 2004 in Bailey's Crossroads , Virginia ) was an American mathematician and university professor .

Life and research

Stafford was born the first of five children. Her parents died in 1919, and she and her siblings moved to a relative's home, first in St. Louis, Missouri and later in Chicago. She attended public schools in Chicago and Marshfield, Wisconsin . In 1922 she graduated from Frank Louis Soldan High School in St Louis and studied at the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio , on a scholarship from the American Association of University Women . She received her bachelor's degree in 1926 with a double major in Greek and mathematics and a minor in French . She became a math and science teacher in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey while attending summer classes at the University of Chicago. In 1931 she received a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and did her doctorate in 1933 with Mayme Irwin Logsdon with a dissertation: Knotted Varieties. In preparation for her postdoctoral studies, she applied to Princeton University to work with James Alexander (mathematician) and Oswald Veblen, but was turned down because she was female. She then wrote directly to Veblen, newly appointed to the Institute for Advanced Study (also in Princeton, New Jersey, but separate from the university), and after speaking to him in Chicago, she was accepted there. Together with Mabel Barnes, she was one of two women in the first group of postdocs who did research at the institute, including James Alexander, Albert Einstein , John von Neumann , Oswald Veblen , Hermann Weyl and, from 1934, Paul Dirac as a visiting professor . She worked at the Institute from 1933 to 1935, working at Princeton school in the mornings and attending seminars at the Institute in the afternoons. In 1935 she accepted a position as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Nebraska and traveled to Europe after her first year of teaching. Here she took part in the International Congress of Mathematicians in Oslo and visited England, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and France. In 1937 she moved to the University of Utah , where she taught math for the next nineteen years. In 1942 she married in Salt Lake City (as his second wife) the administrative judge Douglas Emmanuel Henriques. Having no children together, she and her husband raised Henrique's son and had two Navajo girls as foster children. In 1956 she became a lecturer at St. Michael College in Santa Fe (today: Santa Fe University of Art and Design ), New Mexico , and soon afterwards at the University of New Mexico . In 1962 she became a full professor at St. Michael College and resigned from the University of New Mexico. In 1971 she retired as a professor emeritus and lived in Falls Church , Virginia .

Memberships

Publications (selection)

  • 1937: Adapting the curriculum to our era. Sch. Sci. Math. 37.
  • 1948: The place of mathematics in general education. Proc. Utah Acad. Sci., Arts and Ltrs. 25: 197.
  • 1936: The group of a knot. Amer. Math. Monthly 43.

literature

  • Judy Green, Jeanne LaDuke: Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's. 2009, ISBN 978-0-8218-4376-5 .
  • "Anna Stafford Henriques: A Member at the Institute in 1933." Attributions: A Newsletter from the Development Office, Institute for Advanced Study, Issue one, 2001.
  • Sullivan, Patricia. "Mathematics Pioneer Anna Henriques Dies." Washington Post, Dec 2, 2004.
  • Anna Henriques. (Obituary) Princeton Packet, Dec 10, 2004. * “Anna Adelaide Stafford Henriques.” (Obituary) U-News & Views, University of Utah Alumni Association e-newsletter, Jan 2005.
  • Anna Adelaide Stafford Henriques. ” (Obituary) University of Chicago Magazine, Apr 2005.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stafford, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stafford, Anna Adelaide; Henriques, Anna (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 2004
Place of death Bailey's Crossroads , Virginia