Winifred "Tim" Alice Asprey (April 8, 1917 – October 19, 2007) 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 ...

and computer scientist. She was one of only around 200 women to earn PhDs in mathematics from American universities during the 1940s, a period of women's underrepresentation in mathematics at this level. She was involved in developing the close contact between

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

and IBM that led to the establishment of the first computer science lab at Vassar.

Family

Asprey was born in

Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

; her parents were Gladys Brown Asprey, Vassar class of 1905, and Peter Asprey Jr. She had two brothers, actinide and fluorine chemist Larned B. Asprey (1919–2005), a signer of the Szilárd petition, and military historian and writer Robert B. Asprey (1923–2009) who dedicated several of his books to his sister Winifred.

Education and work

Asprey attended

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

, New York, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1938. As a student there, Asprey met

Grace Hopper Grace Brewster Hopper (; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of compu ...

, the "First Lady of Computing," who taught mathematics at the time. After graduating, Asprey taught at several private schools in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

before going on to earn her MS and PhD degrees from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

in 1942 and 1945, respectively. Her doctoral advisor was the

topologist In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing h ...

Edward Wilson Chittenden. Asprey returned to Vassar College as a professor. By then, Grace Hopper had moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

to work on UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) project. Asprey became interested in computing and visited Hopper to learn about the foundations of

computer architecture In computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. At a more detailed level, the ...

. Asprey believed that computers would be an essential part of a liberal arts education. At Vassar, Asprey taught mathematics and computer science for 38 years and was the chair of the mathematics department from 1957 until her retirement in 1982. She created the first Computer Science courses at Vassar, the first being taught in 1963, and secured funds for the college's first computer, making Vassar the second college in the nation to acquire an IBM System/360 computer in 1967. Asprey connected with researchers at IBM and other research centers and lobbied for computer science at Vassar. In 1989, due to her contributions, the computer center she started was renamed the Asprey Advanced Computation Laboratory.

References

External links

Profile
at Vassar College Innovators Gallery

at Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Asprey, Winifred (Tim) Vassar College alumni University of Iowa alumni Vassar College faculty American women computer scientists 20th-century American women scientists American women mathematicians Computer science educators 1917 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Mathematicians from Iowa 20th-century women mathematicians 20th-century American scientists American computer scientists 21st-century American women