Anne Lucy Bosworth Focke (September 29, 1868 – May 15, 1907) was an American mathematician who became the first mathematics professor at what is now the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

, and later became the first female doctoral student of

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many ...

Early life

Bosworth was originally from

Woonsocket, Rhode Island Woonsocket ( ), is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 43,240 at the 2020 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Being Rhode Island's northernmost city, Woonsocket lies directly south of ...

. When she was four, her father and a younger sister died, and she grew up in a family of women: her mother (a librarian), her grandmother (also widowed), and her aunt.

Undergraduate education and academic work

Bosworth attended Woonsocket High School, and graduated from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial ...

in 1890. At Wellesley, her classmates included mathematicians Grace Andrews and Clara Latimer Bacon. She worked for two years as a teacher at

Amesbury High School Amesbury High School is a coeducational public high school in the city of Amesbury, Massachusetts Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from S ...

in Massachusetts, and was appointed as an instructor of mathematics at the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later to become the

) in early 1892, the first year the school became a college. One month later she became its professor of mathematics and physics.

Graduate education

While continuing to work at the college, Bosworth earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

from 1894 through 1896 through summer study with E. H. Moore and

Oskar Bolza Oskar Bolza (12 May 1857 – 5 July 1942) was a German mathematician, and student of Felix Klein. He was born in Bad Bergzabern, Palatinate (region), Palatinate, then a district of Bavaria, known for his research in the calculus of variations, p ...

. In 1898, taking a leave from her work for the college, Bosworth traveled to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

in Germany, where she worked under the supervision of

. She defended her dissertation there in 1899, and was awarded the Ph.D. in 1900.Chronology from Green and LaDuke and MacTutor. Wyant gives slightly different dates. Her dissertation was ''Begründung einer vom Parallelenaxiome unabhängigen Streckenrechnung'', and concerned

non-Euclidean geometry In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean g ...

. She was David Hilbert's first female doctoral student, part of a group that later included Nadeschda Gernet (1902),

Vera Myller Vera Myller-Lebedev (1 December 1880 – 12 December 1970) was a Russian Empire-born mathematician who earned her doctorate in Germany with David Hilbert and became the first female university professor in Romania. Education Vera Lebedev was b ...

(1906), Margarete Kahn (1909), Klara Löbenstein (1910), and Eva Koehler (1912).

Later life

In 1901 Bosworth married Theodore Moses Focke, an American civil engineer, materials scientist, and applied mathematician whom she had met in Göttingen. Soon afterwards she followed her husband to

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...

, leaving her academic work (except for assisting her husband in grading) to raise a family of three children. She caught

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

in 1907 and died of it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Focke, Anne Bosworth 1868 births 1907 deaths People from Woonsocket, Rhode Island 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Wellesley College alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Göttingen alumni University of Rhode Island faculty 20th-century women mathematicians 20th-century American women 19th-century American women