Ida Rhodes (born Hadassah Itzkowitz; May 15, 1900 – February 1, 1986
) was an American
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
who became a member of the
clique
A clique ( AusE, CanE, or ), in the social sciences, is a group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popular ...
of influential women at the heart of early
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
development in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
.
Childhood
Hadassah Itzkowitz was born in a Jewish village
Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamianets-Podilskyi ( uk, Ка́м'яне́ць-Поді́льський, russian: Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolskiy, pl, Kamieniec Podolski, ro, Camenița, yi, קאַמענעץ־פּאָדאָלסק / קאַמעניץ, ...
between
Nemyriv and
Tulchyn
Tulchyn (, translit. ''Tul’chyn'', old name ''Nesterwar'' (from Hungarian ''Nester'' - Dniester and ''war'' -town), Latin Tulcinum, pl, Tulczyn, yi, טולטשין, ro, Tulcin) is a town in Vinnytsia Oblast (province) of western Ukraine, f ...
in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
on May 15, 1900.
She was 13 years old in 1913 when her parents, David and Bessie () Itzkowitz, brought her to the United States. Her name was changed upon entering the country to Ida Itzkowitz.
Career
Rhodes was awarded the New York State Cash Scholarship and a
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
Tuition Scholarship
and began studying
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
only six years after coming to the United States, from 1919–1923.
During her time at Cornell University she worked as a nurse's aid at
Ithaca City Hospital. She was elected to the honorary organizations
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
(1922) and
Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...
(1923).
She received her
BA in mathematics in February, 1923 and her
MA in September of the same year, graduating
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
.
Ida Itzkowitz married Solomon Alhadef Rhodes on 20 September 1922 in Bronx, New York City, and became known as Ida Rhodes.
The couple made a Declaration of Intention to become a citizen of the United States on 17 June 1924 but were divorced by 1940.
Rhodes had her first encounter with Albert Einstein in 1922 and encountered him again in 1936 at Princeton, where a group of mathematicians traveled to spend the weekend in informal seminars.
She later studied at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1930–31. She held numerous positions involving mathematical computations before she joined the
Mathematical Tables Project The Mathematical Tables Project was one of the largest and most sophisticated computing organizations that operated prior to the invention of the digital electronic computer. Begun in the United States in 1938 as a project of the Works Progress Admi ...
in 1940, where she worked under
Gertrude Blanch, whom she would later credit as her mentor.
Ida Rhodes was a pioneer in the analysis of systems of
programming, and with
Betty Holberton
Frances Elizabeth Holberton (March 7, 1917 – December 8, 2001) was an American computer scientist who was one of the six original programmers of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, ENIAC. The other five ENIAC programmers wer ...
designed the
C-10 programming language in the early 1950s for the
UNIVAC I
The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inven ...
.
She also designed the original computer used for the
Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify f ...
. In 1949, the
Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for busi ...
awarded her a Gold Medal for "significant pioneering leadership and outstanding contributions to the scientific progress of the Nation in the functional design and the application of electronic digital computing equipment".
Though she retired in 1964, Rhodes continued to consult for the Applied Mathematics Division of the
National Bureau of Standards
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...
until 1971. Her work became much more widely known after her retirement, as she took the occasion to travel around the globe, lecturing and maintaining international correspondence. In 1976, the Department of Commerce presented her with a further Certificate of Appreciation on the 25th Anniversary of UNIVAC I, and then at the 1981 Computer Conference cited her a third time as a "UNIVAC I pioneer." She died in 1986.
In an unusual case of an old specialized algorithm still in use, and still credited to the original developer, in 1977 Rhodes was responsible for the "Jewish Holiday" algorithm used in calendar programs to this day.
While at the National Bureau of Standards (no
NIST, she also did original work in machine translation of natural languages.
References
Sources
*National Institute of Standards and Technology virtual museum
*Blanch Anniversary Volume, February 21, 1967
*Charlene Morrow and Teri Peri (eds), ''Notable Women in Mathematics'', Greenwood Press, 1998, pp. 180–85
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, Ida
1900 births
1986 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
American women mathematicians
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
American women computer scientists
American computer scientists
Department of Commerce Gold Medal
People with acquired American citizenship
Jewish scientists
Jewish women scientists
20th-century women mathematicians
Cornell University alumni
20th-century American women