Roxana Vivian

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Roxana Hayward Vivian (born December 9, 1871 in Boston , United States ; † May 31, 1961 in the same place) was an American mathematician and university professor. She became the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1901 .

life and work

Vivian studied at Wellesley College from 1890 to 1894 and received a bachelor's degree in Greek and mathematics. She then taught for a year at the Public High School in Stoughton , Massachusetts, and for three years at the Walnut Hill School in Natick , Massachusetts. In 1898 she began studying with an Alumnae Fellowship for Women at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics with a minor in astronomy in 1901 . After her doctorate, she returned to Wellesley College, where she taught intermittently until 1927. In the summer of 1902 she made the first of many trips to Europe. In 1908 she was promoted to associate professor and in 1918 to full professor. From 1906 to 1909 she taught at the American College for Girls, part of Constantinople College in Turkey , and served there as the incumbent president for the last two years. After returning from Turkey, she often gave lectures on life in Constantinople . From 1913 to 1914 she was a lecturer in statistics at the University Extension in Boston. From 1913 to 1915, she was the financial secretary of the Boston Women's Education and Industry Union. In addition to her classes, she was Director of the Graduate Department of Hygiene and Exercise at Wellesley College from 1918 to 1921. From 1925 to 1926 she was visiting professor at Cornell University and left Wellesley in 1927. A year after leaving Wellesley, she temporarily taught mathematics at a private school in Vassalboro , Maine. From 1929 to 1931 she was Professor of Mathematics and Dean for Women at Hartwick College in Oneonta , New York . From 1931 to 1935 she was a lecturer in mathematics and dean for girls at Rye High School, New York .

Memberships

Publications

  • 1914: with JA Harris. Variation and correlation in the mean age at marriage of men and women. Amer. Naturalist 48: 635-37
  • 1916: An application of statistics to budget making for lunch rooms. J. Home Econ. 8: 19-28.
  • 1917: Mathematics: a great inheritance. Educ. Rev. 53: 30-43. Presented to entering students at Wellesley College, 1915
  • 1917: Review of A History of Elementary Mathematics, with Hints on Methods of Teaching, rev. and enlarged ed., by F. Cajori. Amer. Math. Monthly 24: 385-87
  • 1919: Statistics in relation to the war. Amer. Math. Monthly 26: 32-35. Review: JFM 47.0500.04 (G. Szeg¨o)
  • 1924: A Brief Study of State Distribution of College Students. Newton, MA: Graphic Press

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 .
  • Helen Brewster Owens Papers. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Library
  • Merrill, Helen A. Department of Mathematics Scrapbook of the History of the Department, Wellesley College Archives
  • Woman's Who's Who of America: A biographical dictionary of contemporary women of the United States and Canade, 1914–1915. Edited by John William Leonard, American Commonwealth, 1914
  • "Presentation before the Faculty of Candidates for the Doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania," Science, New Series, Vol. 14, No. 348. (Aug. 30, 1901), pp. 333-338

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vivian, Roxana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vivian, Roxana Hayward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1961
Place of death Boston