Caren Lea Diefenderfer (January 18, 1952 – March 30, 2017) was an American mathematician known for her efforts to promote

numeracy Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and apply simple numerical concepts; it is the numerical counterpart of literacy. The charity National Numeracy states: "Numeracy means understanding how mathematics is used in the real world ...

Education and career

Diefenderfer was born in

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

. She started her undergraduate education at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

, but transferred to

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

among the first women to be admitted as undergraduates to Dartmouth. She graduated with

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

honors in mathematics from Dartmouth in 1973. She went on to graduate study at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

. Her 1980 dissertation, ''Approximation of Functions of Several Variables'' concerned

function approximation In general, a function approximation problem asks us to select a function (mathematics), function among a that closely matches ("approximates") a in a task-specific way. The need for function approximations arises in many branches of applied ...

for

multivariate function In mathematics, a function from a set to a set assigns to each element of exactly one element of .; the words ''map'', ''mapping'', ''transformation'', ''correspondence'', and ''operator'' are sometimes used synonymously. The set is called ...

s, and was supervised by David Sprecher. In 1977, before completing her doctorate, Diefenderfer took a faculty position at Hollins College, where she remained for the rest of her career. She also served as chief reader for the

AP Calculus Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus (also known as AP Calc, Calc AB / BC, AB / BC Calc or simply AB / BC) is a set of two distinct Advanced Placement calculus courses and exams offered by the American nonprofit organization College Board. AP Calculu ...

exam for 2004–2007, and as president of the National Numeracy Network for 2011–2013.

Recognition

In 2017, Diefenderfer was one of the winners of the

Deborah and Franklin Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics The Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics are awards given by the Mathematical Association of America to recognize college or university teachers "who have been widely recognized as ...

, given by the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

to recognize outstanding teaching that is influential beyond the recipient's own campus. Her award citation noted her efforts as "a pioneer in the field of Quantitative Literacy, whose goal is to ensure that all college students become quantitatively literate by taking interesting courses at an appropriate level", her service as president of the National Numeracy Network, her influential work on the AP Calculus exam, and her advocacy for women in mathematics.

Death

On March 30, 2017, Diefenderfer died of breast cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diefenderfer, Caren Lea 1952 births 2017 deaths People from Allentown, Pennsylvania 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Dartmouth College alumni University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Hollins University faculty 20th-century American women mathematicians 21st-century American women mathematicians