Training women in mathematical research: the first fifty years of Bryn Mawr College (1885--1935) (Q897021): Difference between revisions

In this article, the author describes the history of Bryn Mawr College and its Department of Mathematics from the beginnings until the 1930s when Emmy Noether, then the world's greatest female mathematician, joined Bryn Mawr. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the first women's colleges were founded in the US, and at the same time the first research universities, where mathematical training at a research level was offered. Bryn Mawr College was established as a women's college with a strong research program. Thus, it was one of the few places that provided job opportunities in higher education for female researchers. Several women are portrayed who were important for Bryn Mawr College and its Department of Mathematics, among them: Martha Carey Thomas (1857--1935), the first dean and second president of Bryn Mawr, who shaped the college as an institution with a focus on research; Charlotte Angas Scott (1858--1931), first chair of the Department of Mathematics, and Anna Pell Wheeler (1883--1966), second chair of the Department of Mathematics, who both were very active in teaching and research, supervised various PhDs, and played important roles in the American mathematical research community; Marion Edwards Park (1875--1960), third president of Bryn Mawr, who represented Bryn Mawr on the Emergency Committee for Displaced German Scholars and who offered Emmy Noether a position in 1933.