Mary Cartwright

On this date in 1900, mathematician Mary Cartwright was born in Aynho, Northamptonshire, England. Cartwright was the first woman to obtain a first in mathematics from St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and then completed a PhD there in 1928. Beginning in 1930, she held a variety of positions at Cambridge where she remained for the rest of her career. While there she made several advancements in a range of subjects but most notably developed the first analysis of a dynamical system with chaos along with J. E. Littlewood. Their analysis of the fine structure of a set of differential equations related to the modeling of radio and radar work is now seen as a typical instance of the butterfly effect. In 1947, Cartwright became the first female mathematician elected to the Royal Society, and was later the first woman to serve on the Council of the Royal Society.

Date in History: 17 December 1900