Dorothy Walcott Weeks (May 3, 1893 – June 4, 1990) 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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. Weeks was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. She earned degrees from

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 unofficial g ...

, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and

Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University, a women's liberal arts college in Boston, Massachusetts * Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black college in Louisville, Kentucky * Har ...

. Biography on p.621-626 of th
Supplementary Material
a
AMS
/ref> Weeks was the first woman to receive a PhD in Mathematics from the

Early life

Dorothy Walcott Weeks was born on May 3, 1893 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

to Mary (nee Walcott) and Edward Mitchell Weeks, an engraver. Weeks was the second of three children, born after her older brother and before her younger sister Ruth. The family moved in 1900 from

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, where Weeks studied at

Western High School Western High School may refer: Schools in the United States *Western High School (Anaheim, California) – Anaheim, California * Western High School (Illinois) – Barry, Illinois * Western High School (Florida) – Davie, Florida * Western High S ...

Education

Weeks graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College in 1916. After graduation, Weeks went on to work as a teacher, a statistical clerk, and an assistant at the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

. In 1917 she the third woman to work as a patent examiner at the US Patent Office. In 1920 Weeks worked as a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Master's degree in physics from that same institution in 1923. In 1924 she obtained a second master's degree, from the

Prince School of Business A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

, and became an employment supervisor for Jordan Marsh, the Boston department store. But by 1928, she had returned to academia, teaching physics at

while working on her doctorate at the

. In 1930, Weeks completed a PhD in theoretical physics from the mathematics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her dissertation work was guided by

Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...

and published in the '' Journal of Mathematics and Physics''.

Career

Following completion of graduate studies, Weeks developed and led the physics department at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania from 1930-1956. Weeks left Wilson on sabbatical from 1943 to 1945, when she worked as a technical aide at the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Later, in 1949–50, Weeks was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at Wilson in the 1940s, Weeks organized six summer sessions in which undergraduate women traveled to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work with

George R. Harrison George Russell Harrison (July 14, 1898 – July 27, 1979) was an American physicist. Harrison became professor of experimental physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1930, and was appointed the school's dean of science in 1 ...

in the spectroscopy laboratory on compiling wavelength tables. Harrison referred to this as the "Charm School." Among the undergraduate students who participated was

Katherine Sopka Katherine Sopka (born Katherine J. Russell) was a science interviewer, physics professor and historian of physics. She is known for her interviews held with leading scientists, and for work on the history of quantum physics and the physics communit ...

. From 1956 through 1964, Weeks was a physicist at the Watertown Arsenal and the technical representative for the Committee on Radioactive Shielding. In 1964, she worked for the NASA supported Solar Satellite Project at the Harvard College Observatory. From 1966 to 1971 Weeks worked as a lecturer in physics at the

Newton College of the Sacred Heart Newton College of the Sacred Heart was a small women's liberal arts college in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. It opened in 1946 and merged with Boston College in June 1974. The college was highly regarded during its time, and in 1971 founded the ...

. She would continue to work at Harvard as a spectroscopist, studying solar satellites at the Harvard College Observatory until she retired in 1976 at the age of eighty-three. Weeks died on June 4, 1990 at

Newton-Wellesley Hospital Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) is a community teaching medical center located in Newton, Massachusetts on Washington Street. It is affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. Founded in 1881, part of its ca ...

in Newton, Massachusetts due to a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

Publications

* Dorothy W. Weeks, "Three Mathematical Methods of Analyzing Polarized Light," ''Journal of Mathematics and Physics'', Volume 13, Issue 4, (December 1934): 371-379. * Dorothy W. Weeks, "A study of sixteen coherency matrices," ''Journal of Mathematics and Physics'', Volume 13, Issue 4, (December 1934): 380-386. * Henry Norris Russell, Charlotte E. Moore, and Dorothy W. Weeks, "The Arc Spectrum of Iron (Fe 1)," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, (1944). * Dorothy W. Weeks, " Central Pennsylvania Section," ''American Journal of Physics'', Volume 22, Number 3 (March 1954): 148-151. * Dorothy W. Weeks, " Central Pennsylvania Section," ''American Journal of Physics'', Volume 22, Number 6 (September 1954): 424-426. * Dorothy W. Weeks, " Women in Physics Today," '' Physics Today'', Volume 13, Issue 8, (1960): 22-23. * Dorothy W. Weeks, "Absorption Spectrum of Fe I in the Vacuum Ultraviolet," ''Astronomical Journal'', Volume 70 (1965): 696. * Dorothy W. Weeks, "

Women in Physics This article discusses women who have made an important contribution to the field of physics. Physics awards Nobel laureates * 1903 Marie Curie: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on ...

," ''Physics Today'', Volume 40, Issue 6 (1987): 15.

References

External links

Oral history interview with Dorothy Weeks on 19 July 1978, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, Dorothy Walcott 20th-century American physicists American physicists American women physicists Wellesley College alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni 1893 births Simmons University alumni 1990 deaths Women mathematicians Mathematicians from Philadelphia Harvard College Observatory people 20th-century American women Newton College of the Sacred Heart faculty