Welcome to the web site for biographies of women in mathematics. These pages are part of an on-going project at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia, to illustrate the numerous achievements of women in the field of mathematics. Here you can find biographical essays or comments on the women mathematicians profiled on this site, as well as additional resources about women in mathematics. Each time this page is reloaded, a randomly selected photo is displayed to the left (if Javascript is enabled). Click on the image to go to the profile of that woman.

We also welcome contributions of biographical information or essays from those outside Agnes Scott College. If you are interested in contributing an essay, please send your contribution to the email address below. Comments, suggestions, or corrections can also be sent to this address.

• Names in Alphabetical Order
• Names in Chronological Order
• Names by Location of Birth (including a Google Map view)
• Other Resources about Women Mathematicians
• The First Ph.D's in Mathematics by Women before 1930
• Prizes, Awards and Honors for Women Mathematicians
• Birth and Death Anniversaries
• Photo Credits
• Search the site

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Did you know? (Archive)

• The seven members of the USA team for the 2009 China Girls Math Olympiad, held August 11-16 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, all won metals. Pictured in the front row, from left to right: Carolyn Kim, Patricia Li, Jing-Jing (Shiyu) Li, Joy Zheng, Cynthia Day, Ramya Rangan, and Elizabeth Synge; behind the team in the second row are the teams' coaches: Jennifer Iglesias (a member of the US CGMO team in 2007 and 2008) and Zuming Feng, of Phillips Exeter Academy and academic director of the USAMO Summer Program since 2003. Shiyu Li and Joy Zheng each received a Gold medal, while the other five received either a Silver or Bronze medal (for the full results, see the MSRI press release). Read their online journal at the website of one of the team's sponsors, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). The journal describes their experiences at the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program at the University of Nebraska and their trip to China. The website also has links to past US teams' travelogues.
   
• "An analysis of contemporary data has provided new evidence discrediting the notion that females are innately less capable than males at doing mathematics, especially at the highest level." Read more about the report from Janet E. Mertz and Janet S. Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library.
   
• On May 1, 2009, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematicians (SIAM) announced the inauguration of the SIAM Fellows Program to recognize members of SIAM distinguished for their outstanding contributions to the fields of applied mathematics and computational science. Included among the 163 initial members of the SIAM Fellows Class of 2009 are Ingrid Daubechies, Irene Fonseca, Nancy Kopell, Cathleen Morawetz, and Margaret Wright. For additional information, see the SIAM Fellows Program website.

• From Plus online magazine: "Victoria Gould has led unusual parallel careers: not only has she been a successful actor, she is also a mathematician, working first as a researcher and now as a teacher and communicator of maths. Recently she helped develop theatre company Complicite's production 'A disappearing number', which perfectly brought together the mathematical and theatrical sides of her life. We talk to Victoria about her life in mathematics, and her life in theatre, and how the two work together." Read the interview in the December 2008 issue.
   
• Oscar winner filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar (of The Others) is the writer and director for a new movie called Agora, a historical drama set in early Egypt. According to the TimesofMalta.com website, "Oscar-winning actress Rachel Wiesz plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world." The film is expected to be released in December 2009.
   
• Alison Miller, a co-winner of the 2008 Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics from the Association for Women in Mathematics, was awarded a Churchill Scholarship to study at Cambridge University. Alison received her B.A. degree with Highest Honors in Mathematics from Harvard in 2008. She already has a mathematics research paper published in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society. In 2004 she became the first girl to win a gold medal for the USA at the International Mathematical Olympiad. She was also a twice winner of the USA Mathematics Olympiad and twice won the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize as the top female college student in the Putnam Mathematics Competition. After her year at Cambridge, she will enter the Ph.D. program in mathematics at Princeton. Read the citation for Alison's Schafer Prize at the AWM website.

• Sana Raoof, a senior at Jericho High School, Jericho, NY, received a 2008 Intel Young Scientist Award and a $50,000 scholarship from the Intel Foundation for her mathematics project on "Computation of the Alexander-Conway Polynomial on the Chord Diagrams of Singular Knots." She used mathematical knot theory to investigate and solve problems in biochemistry. Read about Sana in an article from the Rediff India Abroad, and listen to Sana explain her project at YouTube.
   

AWM Biographies Contest

To increase awareness of women's ongoing contributions to the mathematical sciences, the Association for Women in Mathematics sponsors an essay contest for biographies of contemporary women mathematicians and statisticians in academic, industrial, and government careers. This contest is open to students in the following categories: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, and College Undergraduate. At least one winning submission will be chosen from each category. Winners will receive a prize, and their essays will be published online at the AWM website. Additionally, a grand prize winner will have his or her submission published in the AWM Newsletter. For more information and to see the results of past Essay Contests, go to http://www.awm-math.org/biographies/contest.html.

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