English 360: Winning at Math, Fall 2007

WHAT IS A MATHEMATICIAN?

Mathematics is one of the oldest and most fundamental sciences. Mathematicians use mathematical theory, computational techniques, algorithms, and the latest computer technology to solve economic, scientific, engineering, physics, and business problems. The work of mathematicians falls into two broad classes—theoretical (pure) mathematics and applied mathematics (U.S. Department of Labor, Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006).

BOOKS

Muir, Jane. Of Men and Numbers: The Story of the Great Mathematicians. New York: Dodd, Mead 1961.

Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes, Cardano, Descartes, Pascal, Newton, Euler, Gauss, Lobatchevsky, Falois, Cantor.
Main Library Circulation, 925.1 M953

 

Osen, Lynn M. Women in mathematics.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.

Introduction.--History.--Hypatia, 370-415.--From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance: the ‪"‬Witch‪"‬ of Agnesi, 1718-1799.--Emilie de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, 1706-1749.--Caroline Herschel, 1750-1848.--Sophie Germain, 1776-1831.--Mary Fairfax Somerville, 1780-1872.--Sonya Corvin-Krukovsky Kovalevsky, 1850-1891.--Emmy ‪(‬Amalie‪)‬ Noether, 1882-1935.--The golden age of mathematics.--The feminine mathtique.--Bibliography ‪(‬p. 173-178‪)
Main Library Circulation, 510.922 Os81

  

Simonis, Doris, ed. Scientists, mathematicians, and inventors: Lives and legacies: An encyclopedia of people who changed the world. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999.

Contains biographies of 200 men and women. Although coverage extends back to Pythagoras, nearly 75 percent of the subjects are people who lived in the last 200 years.
Main Library Reference Stacks, R 509.22 S416 Library Use Only

Hawking, Stephen. God created the integers: The mathematical breakthroughs that changed history. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2005.

Euclid ‪(‬c325 BC-265 BC‪)‬ -- Archimedes ‪(‬287 BC-212 BC‪)‬ -- Diophantus ‪(‬third century AD‪)‬ -- René Descartes ‪(‬1596-1650‪)‬ -- Isaac Newton ‪(‬1642-1727‪)‬ -- Pierre Simon de Laplace ‪(‬1749-1827‪)‬ -- Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier ‪(‬1768-1830‪)‬ -- Carl Friedrich Gauss ‪(‬1777-1855‪)‬ -- Augustin-Louis Cauchy ‪(‬1789-1857‪)‬ -- George Boole ‪(‬1815-1864‪)‬ -- George Friedrich Bernhard Riemann ‪(‬1826-1866‪)‬ -- Karl Weierstrass ‪(‬1815-1897‪)‬ -- Richard Julius Wilhelm Dedekind ‪(‬1831-1916‪)‬ -- Georg Cantor ‪(‬1845-1918‪)‬ -- Henri Lebesgue ‪(‬1875-1941‪)‬ -- Kurt Gödel ‪(‬1906-1978‪)‬ -- Alan Mathison Turing ‪(‬1912-1954‪)‬.
Main Library Circulation, 510 G577
 

Young, Robin, ed. Notable Mathematicians: From Ancient Times to the Present. Detroit: Gale, c1998.

The lives of 300 mathematicians from antiquity to the present. Many contemporary African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic-American women are included.
Main Library Reference Stacks R 510.92 N899 Library Use Only

Morrow, Charlene and Teri Perl, eds. Notable Women in Mathematics: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Maria Gaetana Agnesi -- Andrea Bertozzi -- Lenore Blum -- Sylvia Bozeman -- Marjorie Lee Browne -- Leone Burton -- Fan King Chung -- Ingrid Daubechies -- Emilie de Breteuil du Chatelet -- Etta Zuber Falconer -- Joan Feigenbaum -- Elizabeth Fennema -- Herta Taussig Freitag -- Sophie Germain -- Evelyn Boyd Granville -- Mary Gray -- Gloria Conyers Hewitt -- Grace Brewster Murray Hopper -- Rhonda Hughes -- Joan Hutchinson -- Hypatia -- Nancy Kopell -- Sofya Korvin-Krukovskaya Kovalevskaya -- Christine Ladd-Franklin -- Anneli Lax -- Gilah Chaya Vanderhoek Leder -- Emma Trotskaya Lehmer -- Ada Augusta Byron Lovelace -- Vivienne Malone-Mayes -- Dusa Waddington McDuff -- Marie-Louise Michelsohn -- Cathleen Synge Morawetz -- Emmy Noether -- Karen Parshall -- Bernadette Perrin-Riou -- Harriet Pollatsek -- Cheryl Praeger -- Mina Spiegel Rees -- Ida Rhodes -- Julia Bowman Robinson -- Judith Roitman -- Mary Ellen Rudin -- Mary Beth Ruskai -- Cora Sadosky -- Alice Turner Schafer -- Doris Wood Schattschneider -- Charlotte Angas Scott -- Marjorie Wikler Senechal -- Lesley Milman Sibner -- Mary Fairfax Grieg Somerville -- Pauline Sperry -- Alicia Boole Stott -- Olga Taussky-Todd -- Jean Taylor -- Chuu-Lian Terng -- Karen Uhlenbeck -- Marion Walter -- Sylvia Young Wiegand -- Grace Chisholm Young.
Main Library Reference Stacks R 510.92 N899 Library Use Only
 

Gillispie, Charles Coulston, ed. Dictionary of scientific biography. New York: Scribner, 1971.

Biographies of scientists and mathematicians.  18 volumes.
Main Library Reference Stacks R 509.22 D554 1 Library Use Only

Find specific books on your mathematician. Use the COS Book Catalog!

DATABASES (ELECTRONIC RESOURCES)

Databases are used to store information from a variety of sources.  You can find newspaper, magazine, and journal articles in databases.  Once you know the name of the mathematician you're investigating, Use these two databases to find relevant articles on your mathematician.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - click here to access Gale Virtual Reference Library from the COS Library Electronic Resources page.

Student Research Center - click here to access the Student Research Center from the COS Library Electronic Resources page.

WEBSITES

The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archives
    School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland

Mathematicians of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
    School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin

International Mathematical Union List of Winners
    Fields Medal, Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, and the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize for Applications of Mathematics

OTHER

What are jobs like for today's mathematicians?

Fun math jokes.

Not sure what to include in your paper?  Try answering some of these questions about your mathematician.