Frances Cope, also known as Frances Thorndike (August 19, 1902 - May 14, 1982), was an American mathematician who published on irregular differential equations. The Thorndike nomogram, a two-dimensional diagram of the Poisson distribution, is named for her.

Education and career

Born Elizabeth Frances Thorndike in New York City and known as Frances, her parents were Elizabeth (Moulton) Thorndike and

Edward L. Thorndike Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory of c ...

, an educational psychologist who taught at Teachers College, Columbia University. Frances was educated at Horace Mann School in New York and at

Drum Hill High School Drum Hill High School, which was readapted for use as Drum Hill Senior Living Community, is a historic school located at Peekskill, Westchester County, New York, United States. It was built between 1909 and 1911 and is a three-story, "E"-shaped, gr ...

in Peekskill. She graduated from Vassar College in 1922 and earned her master's degree in mathematics from Columbia University in 1925. In a 1926 paper, she first published a two-dimensional diagram of the Poisson distribution that is now named the Thorndike nomogram after her. She worked for several years as an engineering assistant at American Telephone and Telegraph Company (1922–24, 1925–27) before becoming an instructor of physics at Vassar (1927–28). She spent the 1928–29 academic year as a fellow working towards a Ph.D. at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

, where she met fellow mathematician Thomas Freeman Cope; they married in 1929. In 1930, Cope and her husband moved to Ohio (where he had a job at Marietta College), and two years later she completed her doctorate at Radcliffe as a student of

George David Birkhoff George David Birkhoff (March 21, 1884 – November 12, 1944) was an American mathematician best known for what is now called the ergodic theorem. Birkhoff was one of the most important leaders in American mathematics in his generation, and durin ...

. The subject of her Ph.D. thesis was formal solutions of irregular

differential equations In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

, and the publications that came out of it continue to be cited in the literature of both mathematics and physics. Cope taught mathematics as an instructor at Vassar in 1935–36. In 1937 the Copes moved to New York, where she was an instructor of math at Queens College in 1941 and Adelphi College from 1941 to 1943. She died in Montrose, New York.

Personal life

Frances and Thomas had three children, a son and two daughters. Thomas survived Frances by two years.

References

External links

Thorndike nomogram
i
Gizapedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cope, Frances 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century women mathematicians American women mathematicians Vassar College alumni Radcliffe College alumni Mathematicians from New York (state) 1902 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American women