In service to mathematics. The life and work of Mina Rees
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
zbMATH Open document ID: 1246.01043
author: Amy Shell-Gellasch
publication date: 2012-05-11T00:00:00Z
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A70
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A60
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A73
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A80
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 11R52
zbMATH DE Number: 6033543
zbMATH Keywords: Mina Rees
zbMATH Keywords: 20th century U.S. mathematics
zbMATH Keywords: applied mathematics
MaRDI profile type: Publication
title: In service to mathematics. The life and work of Mina Rees
review text: This book gives an overview of the life and work of the U.S. mathematician Mina Rees. It describes how Mina Rees helped shape the new system of American federal support for scientific research and education during and after WW II and how she contributed to the early U.S. development of the computer as a scientific instrument. An introductory chapter is followed by a chapter on Rees' years at Hunter high school and college for gifted young women as well as her graduation in mathematics at Columbia university, where she could not pursue her PhD because woman were not welcome as postgraduates. A relatively long chapter is devoted to Rees' PhD on division algebras (supervised by Dickson) but it is concluded that this work was less important as compared to her work as an administrator and educator. Three shorter chapters are devoted to this part of her life and work. Attention is given to the role of the Applied Mathematics Panel during WWII and how Rees helped bring mathematics to the war effort as the executive assistant of Warren Weaver, chief of the AMP. It is shown how the AMP helped to convince the military and politicians of the significance of more federal support to science, resulting in, amongst others, the establishment of the Office of Naval Research where Mina Rees, as head of the Mathematics branch (later Deputy Science director), influenced what kind of mathematics research was supported as well as how it was to be conducted. It is argued that it is due to Rees that funding was not restricted to applied mathematics. In this role she was also able to provide strong support for research on computers. After resigning from ONR, Rees helped shape graduate education, locally, as president of the newly founded Graduate school and university center of CUNY, and, more broadly, as a writer of papers on graduate education. Throughout the book some attention is also given to Rees as a female scientist but this is not the main focus of the book.
reviewed by: Liesbeth De Mol
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6033543