Muriel Kennett Wales (9 Jun 1913 – 8 August 2009) was an Irish-Canadian mathematician, and is believed to have been the first Irish-born woman to earn a PhD in pure mathematics.[1][2]
Muriel Kennett Wales | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 9, 1913 |
| Died | August 8, 2008 (aged 95) |
| Known for | First Irish-born woman to receive a PhD in pure mathematics |
| Academic background | |
| Education | University of British Columbia (BA, MA) University of Toronto (PhD) |
| Thesis | Theory Of Algebraic Functions Based On The Use Of Cycles (1941) |
| Doctoral advisor | Samuel Beatty |
Life
editShe was born Muriel Kennett on 9 June 1913 in Belfast. In 1914, her mother moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and soon remarried; henceforth Muriel was known by her mother's new last name, Wales.[3]
She was first educated at the University of British Columbia (BA 1934, MA 1937 with the thesis Determination of Bases for Certain Quartic Number Fields).[4] In 1941 she was awarded the PhD from the University of Toronto for the dissertation Theory Of Algebraic Functions Based On The Use Of Cycles under Samuel Beatty[5] (himself the first person to receive a PhD in mathematics in Canada, in 1915).[6]
She spent most of the 1940s working in atomic energy, in Toronto and Montreal, but by 1949 had retired back to Vancouver where she worked in her step-father's shipping company.[3]
References
edit- ^ The First Irish Woman with a Doctorate in Maths Mathematics Ireland
- ^ The first woman born and brought up in Ireland to get a PhD in mathematical science–as opposed to pure mathematics–was Sheila Tinney, in 1941.
- ^ a b O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Muriel Kennett Wales", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
- ^ Determination of Bases for Certain Quartic Number Fields, University of British Columbia (1937)
- ^ Theory Of Algebraic Functions Based On The Use Of Cycles, Pamphlet, Trans Royal Society of Canada (1944), ASIN: B00KJ0XT04
- ^ Samuel Beatty MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.