Marion Epstein

Marion Greenebaum Epstein (born June 14, 1915 in Brooklyn , United States , † March 24, 2014 in Skillman, Montgomery Township (New Jersey) ) was an American mathematician .

life and work

Epstein was born in Brooklyn as the youngest of three daughters to a German-born Anna Rheinhold and an American father. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn from 1927 to 1931 and studied mathematics at Barnard College when she was 16 . After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1935, she began her thesis in mathematics at Bryn Mawr College . From 1935 to 1938 she received scholarships for mathematics and obtained her master’s degree in 1936. She did her doctorate in 1938 under Heinrich Wilhelm Brinkmann with the dissertation: The Nonexistence of Integral Normal Bases in Certain Algebraic Fields. She then did research at the International Statistical Office in New York City. In 1939 she married Jess Epstein, a research engineer who worked for the Radio Corporation of America . She had a son in 1941, a daughter in 1943 and 1948. From 1944 until her retirement, she worked for what is now the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey , with interruptions during child-rearing periods . From 1973 she worked there in the test development department, from 1962 as chief examiner in mathematics. In this position, she was responsible for final exams, advanced internship exams, senior college board exams, development of computerized test compilations, and project manager for actuarial exams, among others. In 1967 she became deputy director of the department and from 1973 to 1975 she was director of development and analysis, then administrative director of professional services (test development, publications, statistical analysis and systems) until 1977 and vice-president until 1980. She also worked as a consultant for test development, for example for the West African Examinations Council in Ghana and Nigeria in 1964 and for the University of London School in 1967. She was a member of the Princeton Township Board of Education from 1955 to 1966, vice president from 1958 to 1961, and president until 1963. From 1971 to 1973 she co-chaired the Joint Committee on Post-Secondary Vocational Education and Training for the New Jersey State Board of Education and the Board of Higher Education. From 1973 to 1977 she was a member of the New Jersey Board of Higher Education and in 1978 she became a member of the New Jersey Panel of the American Council of Education. In 1980 she was appointed trustee of Kean College in New Jersey (now Kean University ) and on the advisory board of the mathematics department at Princeton University . She was also a member of the American Association for Higher Education and the American Personnel and Guidance Association. In 1979 she became a member of the National Education Committee of the American Jewish Committee.

Memberships

Publications (selection)

1939: Greenebaum, M .: The wool top futures market. The Daily News Record (May).
1958: with SS Myers: How a mathematics test is born. Math. Teacher 51: 299-302.
1963: Educational testing programs: what they can and cannot do. Proc. 1963 Annual Meeting Natl. School Boards Assoc.
1963: with SS Myers. Mathematical reform and the College Board mathematics examinations. Amer. Math. Monthly 70.
1966: Curricular change and the College Board mathematics examinations. Tennessee Math. Bull. (April).
1967: Computer assembly of tests. Proc. 9th Annual Conf. Military Testing Assoc. 49-56.
1968: Testing in mathematics: Why? What? How? Arith Teacher 15: 311-19.
1973: Computer assisted assembly of tests at Educational Testing Service. Educ. Tech. 13.
1973: Standardized mathematics tests can measure the right things. Math. Teacher 66.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Epstein, Marion
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Greenebaum, Marion (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	June 14, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brooklyn
DATE OF DEATH	March 24, 2014
Place of death	Skillman, Montgomery Township, New Jersey