Muriel Kennett Wales (9 Jun 1913 – 8 August 2009) was an Irish-Canadian mathematician, and is believed to have been the first Irish-born woman to earn a PhD in pure mathematics.

Life

She was born Muriel Kennett on 9 June 1913 in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. In 1914, her mother moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, and soon remarried; henceforth Muriel was known by her mother's new last name, Wales. She was first educated at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

(BA 1934, MA 1937 with the thesis ''Determination of Bases for Certain Quartic Number Fields''). In 1941 she was awarded the PhD from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

for the dissertation ''Theory Of Algebraic Functions Based On The Use Of Cycles'' under Samuel Beatty (himself the first person to receive a PhD in mathematics in Canada, in 1915).Samuel Beatty
'' MacTutor History of Mathematics archive'', University of St Andrews. She spent most of the 1940s working in atomic energy, in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, but by 1949 had retired back to Vancouver where she worked in her step-father's shipping company.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wales, Muriel Kennett 1913 births 2009 deaths Canadian women physicists Algebraists University of British Columbia alumni University of Toronto alumni Scientists from Vancouver Canadian women mathematicians 20th-century Canadian mathematicians 21st-century Canadian mathematicians 20th-century women mathematicians 21st-century women mathematicians 20th-century Canadian women scientists 20th-century Canadian physicists 21st-century Canadian physicists Irish emigrants to Canada (before 1923)