Della Jeanne Dumbaugh (also published as Della Dumbaugh Fenster) is an American mathematician and

historian of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...

, focusing on the history of

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

and

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Mat ...

. She is a professor of mathematics 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 ...

, and the editor-in-chief of '' The American Mathematical Monthly''.

Education and career

Dumbaugh is originally from

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. She joined the University of Richmond faculty after completing her Ph.D. in 1994 at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. Her dissertation, ''Leonard Eugene Dickson and His Work in the Theory of Algebra'', concerned the work of

Leonard Eugene Dickson Leonard Eugene Dickson (January 22, 1874 – January 17, 1954) was an American mathematician. He was one of the first American researchers in abstract algebra, in particular the theory of finite fields and classical groups, and is also reme ...

(1874–1954), one of the first American mathematicians to work in

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures. Algebraic structures include group (mathematics), groups, ring (mathematics), rings, field (mathematics), fields, module (mathe ...

. It was supervised by

Karen Parshall Karen Hunger Parshall (born 1955, Virginia; ''née'' Karen Virginia Hunger) is an American historian of mathematics. She is the Commonwealth Professor of History and Mathematics at the University of Virginia with a joint appointment in the Corco ...

Contributions

Dumbaugh was named editor-in-chief of '' The American Mathematical Monthly'' for a five-year term, beginning in January 2022. With Joachim Schwermer, Dumbaugh is a coauthor of the book ''Emil Artin and Beyond – Class Field Theory and L-Functions'' (Heritage of European Mathematics, European Mathematical Society, 2015), concerning the work of Emil Artin and others on

class field theory In mathematics, class field theory (CFT) is the fundamental branch of algebraic number theory whose goal is to describe all the abelian Galois extensions of local and global fields using objects associated to the ground field. Hilbert is credit ...

and ''L''-functions. She is the co-editor of ''A Century of Advancing Mathematics'' celebrating the centennial of the Mathematical Association of America (Mathematical Association of America, 2015) and, with

Deanna Haunsperger Deanna Haunsperger is an American mathematician and Professor of Mathematics at Carleton College. She was the president of the Mathematical Association of America for the 2017–2018 term. She co-created and co-organized the Carleton College Summ ...

, of the book ''Count Me In: Community and Belonging in Mathematics'' on

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

in mathematics (American Mathematical Society and Mathematical Association of America, 2022).

Recognition

Dumbaugh was the 2019 winner of the John M. Smith Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of the Mathematical Association of America.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumbaugh, Della Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians American historians American women historians American historians of mathematics University of Virginia alumni University of Richmond faculty