Dorothy Walcott Weeks

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Weeks with Harold Calvin Marston Morse , Bronisław Knaster , Kazimierz Kuratowski in Zurich 1932

Dorothy Walcott Weeks (born May 3, 1893 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States , † June 4, 1990 in Massachusetts ) was an American mathematician , physicist and university professor. She became the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1930 .

life and work

Weeks studied at Wellesley College in Massachusetts from 1912 to 1916 and then worked as a teacher and statistics clerk before becoming the third woman to work as a patent examiner at the US Patent Office in 1917. From 1918 to 1919 she studied physics and chemistry at Cornell University . In 1920 she worked for the National Bureau of Standards, became a laboratory assistant in the physics laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she became an instructor in 1922. She also studied while working at MIT and received her Master of Science degree in experimental physics in 1923. After graduation, she taught at Buckingham School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while continuing to teach at MIT. In 1924 she received a second masters degree from the Prince School of Business at Simmons College. She taught physics at Wellesley College until 1928 while she was working on her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1930 she did her doctorate in theoretical physics at the mathematics department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Norbert Wiener with the dissertation: A Study of the Interference of Polarized Light by the Method of Coherency Matrices. After completing her studies, she developed and headed the physics department at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with interruptions from 1930 to 1956. In 1932 she did research in Cambridge , England and took part in the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich and the International Federation of University Women Convention in Edinburgh . In 1933 she taught math and chemistry at Central High School in Washington . In 1935 she returned to MIT and began a research program in atomic spectroscopy . Her research was supported by a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. During World War II, she taught electricity, mechanics, and a science management war course at Wilson College . From 1943 to 1945 worked in the US Agency for Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) liaison office overseeing the UK reporting department. After the war she returned to Wilson College as a professor of physics and head of department. From 1949 to 1950 she was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1956 to 1964, she worked as a physicist at the Watertown Arsenal Ordnance Materials Research Office on a project that developed radiological shielding material for use against nuclear weapons, neutrons and gamma rays . In 1964 she worked as a spectroscopist for the NASA- supported solar satellite project at the Harvard College Observatory . The American Association of University Women honored her with her achievement award in 1969 and later founded the Dorothy W. Weeks International Fellowship.

Memberships

Publications (selection)

  • 1934: Three mathematical methods of analyzing polarized light. J. Math. Physics 13, pp.371-79
  • 1934: A study of sixteen coherency matrices. J. Math. Physics 13, pp.380-86
  • 1944: An analysis of the Zeeman patterns of the spectrum of Fe 1. Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. ns 34, pt. 2, p.181-206
  • 1946: with L. Pearce: The problem of atomic energy. J. Amer. Assoc. Univ. Women 39, pp. 81-82
  • 1951: After our international students return home. J. Amer. Assoc. Univ. Women 44, pp. 89-90
  • 1955: Woman power shortage in the physical sciences. J. Amer. Assoc. Univ. Women 48, pp 146-49
  • 1960: Women in physics today. Phys. Today 13 (8), pp. 22-23
  • 1962: Editorial: The Land-Grant colleges. J. Amer. Assoc. Univ. Women 55, p.109
  • 1971: Women - who extend scientific knowledge. Wellesley alum. Mag. 55 (Summer), pp. 1-2
  • 1974: The best possible education. In Wellesley After-Images: Reflections on their College Years by Forty-Five Alumnae, 31–33. Los Angeles: Wellesley Club of Los Angeles, 1974
  • 1975: with HB Creighton: The early years in the sciences: pioneer professors. Wellesley alum. Mag. (Winter) 59, pp. 28-29
  • 1967: with EA Simpson: Absorption Spectrum of Iron in the Vacuum Ultraviolet 2950-1588 A. Harvard College Observatory Scientific Report no. 19. Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard College Observatory.

literature

  • Judy Green, Jeanne LaDuke: Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD's, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8218-4376-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Walcott Weeks, Dorothy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician, physicist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH 4th June 1990
Place of death Massachusetts