Agnes Sime Baxter (Hill) (18 March 1870 – 9 March 1917) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. She studied at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

, receiving her BA in 1891, and her MA in 1892. She received her Ph.D. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1895; her dissertation was "On Abelian integrals", a resume of Neumann's

Abelian integral In mathematics, an abelian integral, named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, is an integral in the complex plane of the form :\int_^z R(x,w) \, dx, where R(x,w) is an arbitrary rational function of the two variables x and w, whi ...

with comments and applications."

Biography

Agnes Sime Baxter was born on March 18, 1870, in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. The Baxter family had emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

from

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Her father, Robert Baxter, was manager of the Halifax Gas Light Company, having managed a Scottish electric light company before moving to Nova Scotia. Baxter enrolled at

in 1887. Her primary courses of study were

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

mathematical physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...

. Despite the relative lack of female

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

in these areas, Baxter received her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in 1891 and was the first women at the university to gain a honours degree. She received multiple awards at graduation, including the Sir William Young Medal for highest standing in mathematics and mathematical physics. She completed her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

at Dalhousie in 1892. From 1892 to 1894, she held a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

ship at

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. On the completion of her thesis, "On

s, a resume of

Neumann Neumann is German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish for "new man", and one of the List of the most common surnames in Europe#Germany, 20 most common German surnames. People * Von Neumann family, a Jewish Hungarian noble family A� ...

's 'Abelsche Integrele' with comments and applications," she became the second Canadian woman and the fourth

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n woman to receive a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in mathematics. Her supervisor

James Edward Oliver James Edward Oliver (1829-1895) was an American mathematician known for his role in establishing the mathematics department at Cornell University. Born in Portland, Maine, Oliver graduated from Harvard College in 1849 and was immediately appoint ...

's mathematical notes were edited by Baxter in 1894 and later published. Agnes Baxter married Dr.

Albert Ross Hill Albert Ross Hill (October 4, 1868 – May 6, 1943) was a Canadian-born American educator and ninth president of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He was also Commissioner of the European Division of the American Red Cross (1921� ...

on August 20, 1896. The marriage produced two daughters. Agnes chose not to teach at the institutions where her husband was a professor, although Albert credited her with assisting him in his work. Agnes Ross Hill died on March 9, 1917, in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

, after protracted illness and was buried in the Columbia Cemetery. On her death, her husband Albert Ross Hill wanted his wife's memory to be preserved donated $1000 to Dalhousie University for the purchase a collection of books at Dalhousie University. The university also created the Agnes Baxter Reading Room within the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computing Sciences.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

In Memoriam
– ''Dalhousie Gazette'', June 15, 1917 * Biography on p. 269-270 of th
Supplementary Material
a
AMS

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Agnes Sime Hill 1870 births 1917 deaths Canadian mathematicians Cornell University alumni 19th-century women mathematicians Canadian women mathematicians Canadian women scientists People from Columbia, Missouri Burials at Columbia Cemetery (Columbia, Missouri) Canadian emigrants to the United States 19th-century American women mathematicians 19th-century American mathematicians 19th-century Canadian mathematicians