Frances Ellen Baker

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Frances Ellen Baker (1902โ€“1995) was an American mathematician who became a professor of mathematics and chair of the mathematics department at Vassar College.

Early life and education

Baker's father was Richard Philip Baker, a British-born mathematician, mathematical model maker, and college administrator. Her mother, Katherine Riedelbauch Baker, was a music teacher and chamber musician. Baker was born on December 19, 1902, in Anna, Illinois, and was home-schooled until high school, where she attended a public school in Iowa City, Iowa. She became valedictorian of her school, graduating in 1919.[1]

At the

magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1923. She continued on as a graduate student, working with her father in mathematics and completing a master's degree in 1925.[1]

After completing her master's degree, Baker became head of the mathematics and physics department at

cubic polynomial;[2] it was supervised by Leonard Eugene Dickson.[3] Both Dickson and Richard Baker, in turn, had been students of the same doctoral advisor, E. H. Moore.[3][4]

Later life and career

Baker's career at Vassar College began in early 1935, when she took a position as instructor there. In late 1935 she moved to Mount Holyoke College as an assistant professor.[1]

In 1942, Baker returned to Vassar, where her sister, mycologist

professor emerita in 1968.[1] In her work as a mathematics professor, she was "particularly involved with honor students", both individually and as faculty mentor of student honor societies.[4] She also gave public lectures about her father's models.[1][6]

In her retirement, Baker rejoined her sister in Sun City, Arizona.[1] She died on April 4, 1995, in Peoria, Arizona.[1][7][8]

Legacy

A doctoral hood worn by Baker is in the collection of the National Museum of American History, with photographs of Baker.[4]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8218-9674-7
  2. MR 1501753
  3. ^ a b Frances Ellen Baker at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  4. ^ a b c "Frances Baker: Daughter of a Mathematical Model Maker", Women Mathematicians and NMAH Collections, National Museum of American History, retrieved 2021-09-14; "Academic Hood of Frances Ellen Baker", Collections, National Museum of American History, retrieved 2021-09-14
  5. ^ "Blanding reveals new promotions for faculty", Vassar Miscellany News, p. 1, February 28, 1951
  6. ^ "F. Baker Lectures on "math models"", Vassar Chronicle, p. 3, December 2, 1950
  7. ^ "Deaths" (PDF), Mathematics People, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 42 (7): 779โ€“780, July 1995
  8. ^ "Deaths", The University of Chicago Magazine, August 1995
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