Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville wrote many works which influenced Maxwell. Her discussion of a hypothetical planet perturbing Uranus led Adams to his investigation. Somerville College in Oxford was named after her.

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Mary Cartwright

Mary Cartwright was the first woman mathematician to be elected to the Royal Society. She became Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge.

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Mary Newson

Mary Newson was an American mathematician. She became the first female American to receive a PhD in mathematics from a European university.

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Letitia Chitty

Letitia Chitty began studying the mathematical tripos but, after war work during World War I, she studied the mechanical sciences tripos. She became a civil engineer, applying mathematical theory and carrying out experiments.

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Florence Nightingale David

Florence Nightingale David was an English statistician who worked to increase the opportunities for women to study statistics. She became head of the Statistics Department at the University of California, Riverside. Among her research interests were the history of probability and of statistical ideas.

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Frances Hardcastle

Frances Hardcastle was an English mathematician who held fellowships in the United States. She studied point groups and wrote some important works. She also was a major figure in the Women’s Suffrage movement and was secretary of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies.

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