Susan Miller Rambo (April 3, 1883 – January 7, 1977) was the second woman awarded a Ph.D. from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and had a long teaching career at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

Biography

Born in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...

, Susan Rambo was the eldest child of George and Annie Rambo. Her father was a wholesale grocer. She graduated high school in Easton, then entered Smith College, located in

Northampton, Massachusetts The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571. Northampton is known as an acade ...

. After graduating from Smith, she taught high school mathematics in

Hoosick Falls, New York Hoosick Falls is a village in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 3,501 at the 2010 census. During its peak, in 1900, the village had a population of approximately 7,000. The village of Hoosick Falls is near the center ...

until 1908. Susan Rambo joined the mathematics department at her alma mater in 1908 as an assistant in mathematics and remained there the remainder of her career with promotions to instructor in 1911, assistant professor in 1918, associate professor in 1922 and professor in 1937. She was department chairman from 1934 to 1940 and retired in 1948 as professor emeritus. One of her students was

Mabel Gweneth Humphreys Mabel Gweneth Humphreys was a Canadian-American mathematician and Professor of Mathematics at Randolph-Macon Women's College. The M. Gweneth Humphreys Award of the Association for Women in Mathematics was established in her honor. Education H ...

. Susan Rambo never married. From 1918 she shared a house with her colleague

Suzan Rose Benedict Suzan Rose Benedict (November 29, 1873 – April 8, 1942) was the first woman awarded a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and had a long teaching career at Smith College. Early life and education Suzan Benedict was born in N ...

until the latter’s death in 1942. In 1945, Susan relinquished her life tenure on the house and the proceeds from its sale went to Smith College to be used for scholarships. She died in a Northampton nursing home in 1977.Judy Green and Jeanne LaDuke, “Supplementary Material for Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD’s,” 504-505: http://www.ams.org/publications/authors/books/postpub/hmath-34-PioneeringWomen.pdf

Graduate education

Starting early in her career at Smith, Susan Rambo began taking graduate courses and was awarded her master's degree in 1913. Her thesis was “A comparative study of analytic and synthetic projective geometry”. In 1916 she took a leave of absence from Smith and studied for her PhD the next two years at the University of Michigan. Her dissertation, “The point at infinity as a regular point of certain linear difference equations of the second order” was directed by Walter Burton Ford. In 1920 she received her PhD, two years after returning to Smith.

Memberships

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, ...

. In 1928 Susan Rambo was a delegate from the society to 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 ...

Bologna, Italy 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 ...

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

Publications

*1905 A Defense of Immigration."In Defence of Immigration,” (Smith College Monthly, Volume 12, Number 8, May 1905) p. 324. https://archive.org/details/smith0506smit *1946 Review of College Mathematics: A General Introduction, by C. H.Sisam. Science n.s., 104:169.

References

External links

Mathematics Genealogy Project

“Susan M Rambo Fund,” (SUMMER RESEARCH FELLOWS PROGRAM 2007 Clark Science Center - Smith College RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rambo, Susan Miller 1883 births 1977 deaths American women academics American women mathematicians Smith College faculty University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American scientists