Clara Latimer Bacon

Clara Latimer Bacon (born August 13, 1866 in Hillsgrove, McDonough County , Illinois , † April 14, 1948 in Baltimore ) was an American mathematician and university professor . She was the first woman to receive a PhD in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University .

life and work

Bacon attended Hedding College in Abingdon, Illinois in 1886 and, after a year, Wellesley College , where she received her Bachelor of Arts in 1890 . She then taught in Kentucky for a year and then in Illinois for five years. In 1897 she began to teach mathematics at the Women's College in Baltimore (now Goucher College ) at the invitation of John Goucher . During this time she continued her studies at the University of Chicago in the summer quarters of 1901-1904, and earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1904. In 1907 she began studying mathematics, education and philosophy at Johns Hopkins University . In 1911 she was the first woman to receive her PhD in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University under Frank Morley . Her dissertation "The Cartesian Oval and the Elliptic Functions Rho and Sigma" was published in 1913 in the American Journal of Mathematics . In 1905 she was promoted to associate professor, in 1914 to full professor and taught until her retirement at Goucher College. She was a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, and served as President of the Maryland-Virginia section of the MAA for a period. In addition, she was a member of several peace organizations. A student residence at Goucher College was named “Bacon House” in her honor.

literature

• Judy Green, Jeanne LaDuke: Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD’s , 2008, ISBN 978-0821843765

Web links

• dissertation
• Published dissertation (English; PDF; 1.9 MB)
• biography
• Bacon House