Mary Lister McCammon (23 August 1927 – 11 April 2008)[2] was a British mathematician and professor at Pennsylvania State University. She was the first woman to complete a doctoral degree in mathematics at Imperial College London, which she did in 1953.[1]
Mary Lister McCammon | |
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Born | Mary Lister |
Alma mater | University of London (BSc, MSc) Imperial College London (PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mathematics |
Institutions | Pennsylvania State University Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thesis | The relaxation method applied to the solution of problems of viscous flow (1953) |
Doctoral advisor | D. N. de G. Allen[1] |
McCammon studied mathematics at the University of London, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a master's in 1950.[3] She was the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College London[4] gaining her doctorate in 1953[1] for her work on mathematical models of viscous flow supervised by D. N. de G. Allen.[1][4][5]
She joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology for postdoctoral research.[3] McCammon joined Pennsylvania State University in 1954.[3] She introduced classes in numerical analysis, calculus and computer programming.[6] She served as director for undergraduate studies twice, first between 1963 and 1975, and again from 1988 to 1998.[3] McCammon was promoted to Professor in 1992.[3] She created the first mathematics placement test, which were given to all freshmen.[7][8]
In 2000, Pennsylvania State University announced the Mary Lister McCammon Award, a scholarship for undergraduate studies, as well as the McCammon Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching named in her honour.[13][14] In 2019, Imperial College London announced the Mary Lister McCammon Summer Research Fellowship for undergraduate women mathematicians.[4]