Johanna "Jane" Ising (born ''Johanna annchenEhmer'' on February 2, 1902, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

; died February 2, 2012, in Matteson, Illinois) was a

German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

economist.

Life

Ising studied economics at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University Berlin and received her doctorate in 1926 with a thesis on "''The Problem of Unemployment in England after 1920''". On December 23, 1930, she married physicist

Ernst Ising Ernst Ising (; May 10, 1900 – May 11, 1998) was a German physicist, who is best remembered for the development of the Ising model. He was a professor of physics at Bradley University until his retirement in 1976. Life Ernst Ising was bor ...

; they lived in Caputh, Brandenburg, next to the famous summer residence of the

Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

family. In 1938, the Jewish boarding school in Caputh, where Johanna and Ernst Ising worked as teachers, was destroyed by

National Socialists Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

; in 1939, the Isings emigrated to

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. After the German occupation of Luxembourg, Ernst Ising was forced to perform labor in the army. In 1939 their son Tom was born in Luxembourg. In 1947 they emigrated to the United States and settled in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is a city in Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Ill ...

in 1949, where the Isings taught at

Bradley University Bradley University is a private university in Peoria, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1897, Bradley University enrolls 5,200 students who are pursuing degrees in more than 100 undergraduate programs and more than 30 graduate programs in fiv ...

. Jane Ising passed away in the early morning hours of her 110th birthday.Jane Ising, longtime Peoria resident and former Bradley professor, dies on 110th birthday
Chicago Tribune, February 3, 2012

References

External links

Jane Ising: "Walk on a tightrope or Paradise lasted a year and a half"
(Memoirs; PDF file 30 MB, English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ising, Jane 1902 births 2012 deaths Women supercentenarians German supercentenarians American supercentenarians German women economists American women economists Emigrants from Nazi Germany Bradley University faculty 20th-century German economists 20th-century American economists American women centenarians German women centenarians