Alice Turner Schafer (June 18, 1915 – September 27, 2009) was an American
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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
. She was one of the founding members of the
Association for Women in Mathematics in 1971.
[Boston Globe Obituary]
via Legacy.com
Legacy.com is a United States-based website founded in 1998, the world's largest commercial provider of online memorials. The Web site hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70 percent of all U.S. deaths.Keagle, Lauri Harvey"Death in the ...
Early life
Alice Elizabeth Turner was born on June 18, 1915, in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
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, pushpin_label = Richmond
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. She received a full scholarship to study at the
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...
. She was the only female mathematics major. At the time, women were not allowed in the campus library.
She was a brilliant student and won the department's James D. Crump Prize in mathematics in her junior year. She completed her B.A. degree in mathematics in 1936.
For three years Alice was a
secondary school teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
, accruing savings to pay for
graduate school
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree.
The organization and st ...
.
At
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, Alice was a student of
Ernest Preston Lane
Ernest Preston Lane (November 28, 1886, Russellville, Tennessee – October 1969) was an American mathematician, specializing in differential geometry.
Education and career
In 1909, he received his bachelor's degree in from the University of Tenn ...
, author of ''Metric Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces'' (1940) and ''A Treatise on Projective Differential Geometry'' (1942).
Alice studied
differential geometry of curves and implications of the
singular point of a curve. When a curve has null
binormal, it is ''planar'' at that point.
Duke Mathematical Journal published her work in 1944. Alice continued her investigations into curves near an
undulation point
In differential calculus and differential geometry, an inflection point, point of inflection, flex, or inflection (British English: inflexion) is a point on a smooth plane curve at which the curvature changes sign. In particular, in the case of ...
, publishing in
American Journal of Mathematics
The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is a bimonthly mathematics journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
History
The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is the oldest continuously published mathematical journal in the United ...
in 1948.
When she was completing her studies at Chicago, she met
Richard Schafer, who was also completing his Ph.D. in mathematics at Chicago. In 1942 Turner married Richard Schafer, after both had completed their doctorates.
They had two sons.
Academic career
After completing her Ph.D., Alice Schafer taught at
Connecticut College
Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college ...
,
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...
, the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
and several other institutions. In 1962 she joined the faculty of
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficia ...
as a full professor. Her husband Richard was working at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
,
researching
non-associative algebras. In 1966 he published a book on them which he dedicated "To Alice".
As a teacher, Alice especially reached out to students who had difficulties with or were afraid of mathematics, by designing special classes for them. She took a special interest in helping high-school students, women in particular, achieve in mathematics.
In 1971, Schafer was one of the founding members of the
Association for Women in Mathematics. She was elected as the second President of the Association. "Under the leadership of its second president Alice T. Schafer,
WMwas legally incorporated in 1973 and received tax-exempt status in 1974."
[ see page 16]
Schafer was named Helen Day Gould Professor of Mathematics at Wellesley in 1980. She retired from Wellesley in 1980. However, she remained there for two more years during which she was chairman of Wellesley's Affirmative Action Program. After retiring from Wellesley, she taught at Simmons College and was also involved in the management program in the Radcliffe College Seminars. Her husband retired from MIT in 1988 and the couple moved to
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county i ...
. However, she still wanted to teach. She became professor of mathematics at
Marymount University until a second retirement in 1996.
Awards and honors
Schafer received many awards and honors for her service to mathematics. She received an honorary degree from the University of Richmond in 1964. She was elected a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...
in 1985.
In 1990 the Association for Women in Mathematics established the ''
Alice T. Schafer Prize in Mathematics'' to honor her for her dedicated service towards increasing the participation of women in mathematics.
In January 1998, she received the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr Charles Y Hu Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics, awarded by the
Mathematical Association of America.
References
* Charlene Morrow & Teri Perl (editors) (1998) ''Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary'',
Greenwood Publishing Group
Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher ( middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as ...
.
External links
*
Papers of Alice Turner Schafer, 1944-2010 (inclusive), 1980-1997 (bulk): A Finding Aid.http://radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library Schlesinger Library], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schafer, Alice
1915 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American women mathematicians
Topologists
University of Chicago alumni
University of Richmond alumni
Wellesley College faculty
20th-century American women scientists
People from Richmond, Virginia
Mathematicians from Virginia
20th-century women mathematicians
21st-century women mathematicians
21st-century American women