Ruth Gentry

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Ruth Ellen Gentry (born February 22, 1862 in Stilesville (Indiana) , United States , † October 18, 1917 in Indianapolis , Indiana ) was an American mathematician and university professor. She was the first woman to graduate from Bryn Mawr College and the first Indiana-born woman to earn a PhD in mathematics in 1896 . She was among the first Indiana-born women to earn a PhD in a scientific discipline.

life and work

After homeschooling on the family farm, Gentry attended Indiana State Normal School, a teacher training college opened in 1870. After graduating in 1880, she taught at preparatory schools for ten years. In 1886 she received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan , where women were admitted to college at the time. From 1886 to 1888 she taught at the DeLand Academy in Florida . In 1890 she began studying at Bryn Mawr College, which at the time was one of the few colleges in the country that allowed women to graduate. In 1891 she was a Fellow in Mathematics with Bryn Mawr. After her first year, she was the first mathematician to receive the European Fellowship of the Association of College Alumnae and used the scholarship to study in Europe from 1891 to 1892. She first went to Germany in the hope of being able to attend lectures by German mathematicians at one of the country's universities. After being rejected by numerous professors, she was allowed to attend lectures by Lazarus Fuchs and Ludwig Schlesinger at the University of Berlin for one semester . However, she was not allowed to officially enroll as a woman, so she could not obtain a degree. After one semester, she was informed that an admission error had been made and that she was not allowed to attend any further lectures. She wrote to Felix Klein at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and asked if he would allow her to attend his lectures, but he replied that it was against the rules. She then went to Paris , where she attended a semester of mathematics classes at the Sorbonne before returning to Bryn Mawr. She was a Fellow in Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College from 1892 to 1893, and the following year she was named a Courtesy Fellow. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Charlotte Angas Scott and in 1884 she passed the exams required for a doctorate. However, her dissertation took 2 years to print, so her graduation from Bryn Mawr did not become official until 1896. After completing her doctorate, she taught at Vassar College and was appointed associate professor in 1900. After two years, she became the assistant principal and math director at a private school in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . In 1905, she spent some time as a volunteer nurse, traveling the US and Europe. However, she became progressively ill and died of breast cancer at the age of 55. She was a member of the American Mathematical Society from 1894 until her death .

literature

  • Judy Green, Jeanne LaDuke: Pioneering women in American mathematics: the pre-1940 PhD's . American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI 2009, ISBN 978-0-8218-4376-5 (English).
    • Judy Green, Jeanne Laduke: GENTRY, Ruth . In: American Mathematical Society (Ed.): Supplementary Material For Pioneering Women In American Mathematics: ThePre-1940 PHD's . January 15, 2016, p. 202 (English, 674 pages, download [PDF; 2.9 MB ; accessed on August 15, 2020] Additional information (supplement) to the book).
  • David E. Zitarelli: A history of mathematics in the United States and Canada . Volume 1. 1492-1930. tape 1 . MAA Press (Imprint of the American Mathematical Society), Providence, Rhode Island 2019, ISBN 978-1-4704-4829-5 (English).
  • Patricia Kenschaft, "The Students of Charlotte Angas Scott," Mathematics in College, Fall 1982, 16-20.
  • Della Fenster, Karen Parshall: "Women in the American Mathematical Research Community: 1891-1906," The History of Modern Mathematics, Vol. III (Eberhard Knobloch and David Rowe, eds.), 229-261.
  • Betsey S. Whitman, "Women in the American Mathematical Society before 1900," Association for Women in Mathematics Newsletter, 13 (4) (July / August 1983), 10-14.
  • 1920: Register of Alumnae of Bryn Mawr College.
  • Will E. Edington: Biographical Sketches of Indiana Scientists IV. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Retrieved February 11, 2016.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gentry, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gentry, Ruth Ellen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Stilesville, Indiana
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1917
Place of death Indianapolis , Indiana