Elizabeth Frances Cope

Elizabeth Frances Cope , née Thorndike (born August 19, 1902 in New York City , USA , † May 14, 1982 in Montrose , New York ) was an American mathematician .

childhood

Elizabeth Frances Thorndike, nickname Frances, was born as the eldest child of Elizabeth (Moulton) (* 1878) and Edward L. Thorndike (* 1874, † 1949), both originally from Massachusetts . She came from a distinguished academic family. Her mother had studied at Boston University for four years . Her father had studied at Harvard and received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1898 . He became one of the most influential school psychologists of his time. Her three brothers also embarked on academic careers and obtained a doctorate in physics or psychology.

School and Academic Career

Frances Thorndike first attended the Horace Mann School, later the public school in Montrose, New York and the Drum Hill High School in Peekskill, New York. She attended Vassar College and graduated in 1922. 1922–24 and 1925–27 she worked as a technical assistant at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in New York City. In 1924/25 she made her master's degree in mathematics from Columbia University. 1927-29 Frances Thorndike worked as a physics teacher at Vassar College and 1928/29 she studied at Radcliffe College.

marriage and family

On June 29, 1929, Frances Thorndike married Thomas Freeman Cope, two years her senior. Born in Texan, he received a bachelor's and master's degree from Tulane University in 1923 and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1927. At Harvard University, he was a member of the National Research College in 1928/29. In 1930 the Copes moved to Ohio, where T. Freeman Cope worked until 1937 as the head of the mathematics department at Marietta College. The Copes had three children: Freeman Widener (* 1930; † 1982), Elizabeth Frances (* 1934) and Maria (* 1935). Freeman earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1955 , and Elizabeth received her PhD from Harvard University in 1963 in psychotherapy. In 1937 the family moved to New York and T. Freeman Cope became a faculty member at Queens College, City University of New York . Until 1970 he worked there first as a lecturer, later as a professor. At times he was chairman of the faculty.

Doctorate and later career

In 1932 Frances T. Cope received his doctorate from Radcliffe College with George David Birkhoff . The publications derived from her dissertation were often cited in the scientific literature of mathematics and physics. From 1935-36 Frances Cope worked as a math teacher at Vassar College. In 1941, Frances T. Cope lectured at Queens College and from 1941–43 at Adelphi College. Frances Cope was a member of the Vassar Club and she supported the Community Hospital in Peekskill, New York. In 1982, Frances Cope suddenly died at her home in Montrose, New York, aged 79. She was survived by her husband, three children, seven grandchildren and three brothers. T. Freeman Cope died two years later in Rochester , Minnesota .

Diploma thesis and dissertation

• 1925 [F. Thorndike]: Partial differential equations of the first order . MA thesis, Columbia University
• 1932: Formal solutions of irregular linear differential equations . PhD dissertation, Radcliffe College

Publications

• 1926 [F. Thorndike]: Applications of Poisson's probability summation . Bell Syst. Tech. J. 5, pp. 604-624, OCLC 9183909 . This publication contains the Thorndike nomogram named after Frances Thorndike .
• 1934-36: Formal solutions of irregular linear differential equations (2 parts). In: Amer. J. Math. Volume 56, pp. 411-437, and Volume 58, pp. 130-140. Published version of PhD diss. Reviews of Part I: JFM 60.0382.02 (O. Perron); Zbl 009.35401 (IS Sokolnikoff). Reviews of Part II: JFM 62.0523.02 (O. Perron); Zbl 013.20402 (IS Sokolnikoff). Part I presented by title to the AMS, Atlantic City, NJ, Dec 27, 1932; abstract: Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 39:24 # 8.

Web links

• Judy Green, Jeanne LaDuke: Pioneering women in American mathematics: the pre-1940 PhD’s . 2009, ISBN 978-0-8218-4376-5 , GoogleBooks