Olive Clio Hazlett (October 27, 1890 – March 8, 1974) 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 ...

who spent most of her career working for 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 ...

. She mainly researched

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 a ...

, and wrote seventeen research papers on subjects such as

nilpotent algebra In mathematics, specifically in ring theory, a nilpotent algebra over a commutative ring is an algebra over a commutative ring, in which for some positive integer ''n'' every product containing at least ''n'' elements of the algebra is zero. The co ...

s, division algebras, modular invariants, and the arithmetic of algebras.

Background

Hazlett was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

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 ...

, but grew up in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, where she attended public school. In 1912 she received her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from

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 ...

. She then attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

for her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

(1913) and Ph.D. (1915), for which she wrote a

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

titled ''On the Classification and Invariantive Characterization of Nilpotent Algebras'' with

L. E. 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 remem ...

as thesis advisor. After receiving her

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

Hazlett was awarded an

Alice Freeman Palmer Alice Freeman Palmer (born Alice Elvira Freeman; February 21, 1855 – December 6, 1902) was an American educator. As Alice Freeman, she was president of Wellesley College from 1881 to 1887, when she left to marry the Harvard professor George He ...

Fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

by Harvard, which allowed her to research invariants of nilpotent algebras at

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 ...

for the next year.

Career

In 1916 she was appointed to

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

, where she worked for two years before accepting an appointment as assistant professor at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

. She was promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

in 1924, the same year she gave a talk on ''The Arithmetic of a General Associative Algebra'' at the

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 ...

in Toronto, but in 1925 she left Mount Holyoke because she felt she was not given enough time or resources to pursue her research in algebra. It was then that she took a job as assistant professor at the University of Illinois, where she would spend the rest of her career. In 1928 Hazlett received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

that allowed her to spend a year visiting

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. While in Italy she presented a paper called ''Integers as Matrices'' to the

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

. Near the end of her visits she requested an extension of her Guggenheim Fellowship, which was granted and allowed her to spend another year in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. When she finally returned to the University of Illinois in 1930, she was promoted to associate professor and received a pay raise. However, her teaching schedule was rigorous and required her to teach service courses to large classes of non-math-majors, and after 1930 she did not publish any more research papers. In 1935 she wrote to the chair of the mathematics department complaining that the service courses left her no time for research, but her teaching schedule was not changed and by December 1936 she took a sick leave after having a mental breakdown from the stress of her job. The sick leave was supposed to end in August 1937, but her health had not improved enough by this time and she took another year off. She was, however, able to return to teaching by the end of 1938. In 1940, she was appointed a member of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

's Cryptanalysis Committee, for which she worked until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She maintained her teaching job for most of this period, though, (except for taking leave in 1944-45) and went to great lengths to keep her Cryptanalysis Committee work secret. Her health, however, continued to deteriorate, and in 1946 the University of Illinois placed her on permanent disability leave. In 1959 she officially retired from the University of Illinois as an Associate Professor Emerita. She lived the rest of her life at her home in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Selected works

* * * * * * * *

External links

*
Biographies of Women Mathematicians: Olive Clio Hazlett
* Biography on p. 251-258 of th
Supplementary Material
a
AMS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hazlett, Olive 1890 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Radcliffe College alumni University of Chicago alumni Mount Holyoke College faculty People from Cincinnati People from Boston Bryn Mawr College faculty University of Illinois faculty People from Peterborough, New Hampshire 20th-century women mathematicians 20th-century American women Mathematicians from Ohio Mathematicians from Massachusetts Mathematicians from New Hampshire