Dorothy McCoy

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Dorothy McCoy (born August 9, 1903 in Oklahoma Territory , United States , † November 21, 2001 ) was an American mathematician and university professor. She became the first woman to graduate from the University of Iowa in mathematics in 1929 .

life and work

McCoy received a bachelor's degree from Baylor University in Texas with honors and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1929 with Edward Wilson Chittenden . The title of her dissertation was: The Complete Existential Theory of Eight Fundamental Properties of Topological Spaces. She taught at Belhaven College, Mississippi for twenty years and became a professor of mathematics at Wayland Baptist College in 1949 . She continued her mathematics studies during the summer months at the University of Chicago , Columbia University , Vanderbilt University, and the University of Colorado . In 1954 she received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Iraq in Baghdad . She toured several European countries and later trips took her to South America, Africa and Indonesia. She visited more than 60 countries, some of them as a visiting professor. She also worked several summers on the government's missile program at Cape Canaveral and the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and taught math at the University of Hawaii , University of New Mexico , Baylor University , Northwestern Oklahoma State University, and Texas Tech University . In 1975 she retired from Wayland Baptist College with the title Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. In 1980 the Dorothy McCoy Lecture Series started at Wayland Baptist College. In 1982 she received the first Distinguished Service to Students Award and in 1999 the first Distinguished Lifetime Service Alumni Award.

literature

  • Judy Green, Jeanne LaDuke: Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's. 2009, ISBN 978-0-8218-4376-5 .
  • David E. Zitarelli: A History of Mathematics in the United States and Canada: Volume 1: 1492-1900. 2019, ISBN 978-1-4704-4829-5 .
  • Cohen, David. "In Memoriam, Neal H. McCoy, 1905-2001," Memorial Minute presented to a meeting of the Smith College Faculty.
  • "Longtime Wayland supporter, former professor dies," Wayland Baptist University News Release, November 29, 2001.
  • "Wayland to dedicate honors dorm to former faculty member," Wayland Baptist University News Release, October 5, 2001.
  • Wayland Baptist University archive materials.
  • Dorothy McCoy (1903-2001) . In: The Association for Women in Mathematics Newsletter . tape 32 , no. 1 , 2002, p. 8–9 (English, download [PDF; 1.1 MB ; accessed on August 17, 2020] obituary).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME McCoy, Dorothy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Oklahoma Territory
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 2001