Frances Harshbarger (16 August 1902,

Quimby, Iowa Quimby is a city in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 249 at the time of the 2020 census. Geography Quimby is located at (42.629770, -95.642846). It is situated near the Little Sioux River. According to the United State ...

– 11 February 1987,

Cuyahoga Falls Cuyahoga Falls ( or ) is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 51,114. The second-largest city in Summit County, it is located directly north of Akron and is a suburb of the Akron metropol ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

) was an American mathematician.

Education

She obtained her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

with honors in 1923 at

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-st ...

, and went to

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

to serve as a half-time teacher and simultaneously work on her mathematics graduation; in 1925 she finished her

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

After that she became head of the mathematics department of

Potomac State College Potomac State College is a public college in Keyser, West Virginia. It is part of the West Virginia University system. Potomac State College is located approximately 90 miles (140 km) east of West Virginia University's campus in Morgantown, West ...

Keyser, West Virginia Keyser () is a city in and the county seat of Mineral County, West Virginia. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,853 at the 2020 census. History Keyser, the county seat of Mineral County, is ...

. In 1927 to 1929, she was an assistant, in 1929 to 1930 a fellow, at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. In 1930, she obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics with a thesis in algebraic geometry, advised by A. B. Coble. She was one of the first American women who obtained a mathematics Ph.D. degree. Biography on pp. 244 of th
Supplementary Material
a
AMS
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Career

Thereafter, she worked as a professor in the American College for Girls, the university section of

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( tr, İstanbul Özel Amerikan Robert Lisesi or ), often shortened to Robert, or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary ...

, in

Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. She attended the 1932

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

as an official delegate.Vol.1
of the Congress Proceedings, p. 10, 25 (= p. 18, 33 in the Pdf file) In 1934, she returned to the United States to teach at the high school associated with the University of Chicago. For the rest of her career, she served at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

in Ohio, as an appointed instructor since 1935, an assistant professor since 1936, an associate professor since 1942, and a professor since 1946, until she retired in 1972, as emeritus professor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harshbarger, Frances 20th-century American mathematicians 1902 births 1987 deaths American women mathematicians West Virginia University alumni Grinnell College alumni West Virginia University faculty University of Illinois alumni Kent State University faculty People from Cherokee County, Iowa Mathematicians from Iowa 20th-century American women Potomac State College of West Virginia University faculty