Sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

Marion Beiter (August 23, 1907 – October 11, 1982), born Dorothy Katharine Beiter, was an American mathematician and educator. Her research focused on the area of

cyclotomic polynomial In mathematics, the ''n''th cyclotomic polynomial, for any positive integer ''n'', is the unique irreducible polynomial with integer coefficients that is a divisor of x^n-1 and is not a divisor of x^k-1 for any Its roots are all ''n''th prim ...

s. Beiter was born in

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

to Kathryn () and Edward Frederick Beiter, where she attended

Sacred Heart Academy Sacred Heart Academy may refer to various institutions: in the United States: *Sacred Heart Academy (Redlands, California) *Sacred Heart Academy (Hamden, Connecticut) * Sacred Heart Academy (Stamford, Connecticut) *Sacred Heart Academy (Louisville ...

. She entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity in 1923, and professed her

final vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views. In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, many different kinds of r ...

in 1929. She began her career in 1925 as a teacher in parochial and private schools, continuing in this capacity until 1952, when she was appointed chairwoman of the mathematics department of Rosary Hill College. She meanwhile graduated from

Canisius College Canisius University is a private Jesuit university in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 ma ...

(1944) and

St. Bonaventure University St. Bonaventure University is a private university, private Franciscan university in St. Bonaventure, New York. It has 2,760 undergraduate and graduate students. The Order of Friars Minor, Franciscans established the university in 1858. In ath ...

(1948), before obtaining a PhD from the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...

in 1960. In her work on cyclotomic polynomials and their coefficients she made a conjecture referred to as Sister Beiter conjecture. Besides a sabbatical year at the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...

in 1971–1972, Beiter remained at Rosary Hill until her retirement in May 1977. Beiter died in 1982 of a series of

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beiter, Marion 1907 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American educators American women mathematicians Canisius University alumni Catholic University of America alumni Daemen University Franciscans Mathematicians from New York (state) Scientists from Buffalo, New York St. Bonaventure University alumni