Lucy Joan Slater (5 January 1922 – 6 June 2008) was a

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 ...

who worked on hypergeometric functions, and who found many generalizations of the

Rogers–Ramanujan identities In mathematics, the Rogers–Ramanujan identities are two identities related to basic hypergeometric series and partition (number theory), integer partitions. The identities were first discovered and proved by , and were subsequently rediscovered ( ...

Early life

Slater was born in 1922 and homeschooled for much of her early education. Her father passed away when she was nine years old. Slater was interested in jazz music and played the piano as an accompanist in her early years. She attended college at Bedford College and received her first B.A. from

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

in 1944. During the war, she worked teaching soldiers

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. T ...

Career

Her advisor was Wilfrid Norman Bailey. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. from London University while studying hypergeometric equations, including her publication of a list of over 100 Rogers-Ramanujan Identities. Later, she received a D.Litt. from London University as well. In the early 1950s she played a leading role at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in devising a precursor of modern computer operating systems, and subsequently she helped to develop computer programs for

econometrics Econometrics is the application of Statistics, statistical methods to economic data in order to give Empirical evidence, empirical content to economic relationships.M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of ...

, working for much of the time with UK government officials. She received a Ph.D. and Sc.D. from Cambridge and was named assistant director of Research in the Department of Economics in 1962. She retired in 1982 and subsequently devoted much of her time to

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

Writing

Her (unpublished) memoirs include descriptions of life as a teenager in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

during the bombing of the Second World War, and of working with early computers at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. In 1997 she completed a remarkable listing of all the graves at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge and their inscriptions in the burial ground; she wrote a paper called "A Walk round the Ascension Burial Ground, Cambridge" which describes over 100 of the graves as though the reader is walking around the burial ground and includes detailed maps. The fourth edition is dated December 1994.

Death

She was buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge in 2008 in the same grave as her mother, Lucy Dalton Slater (1893–1975), widow of John Wardle Slater F.I.C., Admiralty chemist, buried in Portsmouth.

Recognition

In 2016 the Council of the University of Cambridge approved the use of Slater's name to mark a physical feature within the

North West Cambridge Development The North West Cambridge Development is a University of Cambridge site to the north west of Cambridge city centre in England. The development is meant to alleviate overcrowding and rising land prices in Cambridge. The first phase resulted from ...

Publications

* * * * * (there is a 2008 paperback with ) * ''Fortran programs for economists'', Cambridge University Press, 1967 * ''First steps in basic Fortran'', London: Chapman & Hall, 1971 * ''More Fortran programs for economists'', Cambridge University Press, 1972 * ''GEM: a general econometric matrix program'', Cambridge University Press, 1976 * ''Dynamic regression: theory and algorithms'' (co-author with M. H. Pesaran), Halsted Press, 1980

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Lucy Joan 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians British women mathematicians 2008 deaths 1922 births 20th-century British women scientists 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians Alumni of the University of London