Mary-Elizabeth Hamstrom (May 24, 1927 – December 2, 2009) was an American mathematician known for her contributions to

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

, and particularly to

point-set topology In mathematics, general topology (or point set topology) is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differ ...

and the theory of

homeomorphism group In mathematics, particularly topology, the homeomorphism group of a topological space is the group consisting of all homeomorphisms from the space to itself with function composition as the group operation. They are important to the theory of top ...

s of

manifold In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an n-dimensional manifold, or ''n-manifold'' for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a N ...

s. She was for many years a professor of mathematics at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

Early life and education

Hamstrom was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, one of three sisters. She frequently abbreviated her name as M-E, but never Mary. She was a student at

Germantown High School (Philadelphia) Germantown High School was a secondary school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Germantown High School graduated its final class on June 19, 2013 and closed its doors that week. GHS, located in Germantown, Philadelphia, Germantown, was a part of t ...

, where Anna Mullikin, a mathematician and doctoral student of

Robert Lee Moore Robert Lee Moore (November 14, 1882 – October 4, 1974) was an American mathematician who taught for many years at the University of Texas. He is known for his work in general topology, for the Moore method of teaching university mathematics, ...

, had become a teacher. She did her undergraduate studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where Moore had taught many years previously, and completed her bachelor's degree there in mathematics in 1948, after having worked there as an assistant to John Robert Kline, who had been another of Moore's students at the University of Pennsylvania before becoming a faculty member there himself. Given this background, "she seemed predestined to pursue graduate work with Robert Lee Moore at the University of Texas", as on Kline's recommendation she did. A letter from Moore to Hamstrom, while she was still a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, describes the

Moore method The Moore method is a deductive manner of instruction used in advanced mathematics courses. It is named after Robert Lee Moore, a famous topologist who first used a stronger version of the method at the University of Pennsylvania The ...

of teaching mathematics and expresses Moore's regret that she had already begun study in her intended specialty; Moore preferred to begin with a clean slate. This letter has been described as being "of considerable importance in the history of mathematics education". Hamstrom completed her Ph.D. at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in 1952. Her dissertation, under Moore's supervision, was ''Concerning Webs in the Plane''. F. Burton Jones, another Moore student on the Texas faculty, became another of her mentors.

Career and later life

On completing her doctorate, Hamstrom became a faculty member at

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1885 as a Nonsectarian, nonsecterian Women's colleges in the United States, ...

, then a women's college, and she earned tenure there in 1957 after a year at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

. While visiting the institute, she was encouraged to move to the

by Paul T. Bateman, who was a professor there and was also visiting the Institute at the same time. Hamstrom had known Bateman from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a graduate student when she was an undergraduate. Following Bateman's advice, she moved to the University of Illinois in 1961. Five years later, when the university promoted her to full professor, she became only one of four women with that rank in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She retired in 1999. Hamstrom's "period of greatest creative activity" was from 1950 to 1980, during which she published 24 papers on point set topology,

geometric topology In mathematics, geometric topology is the study of manifolds and Map (mathematics)#Maps as functions, maps between them, particularly embeddings of one manifold into another. History Geometric topology as an area distinct from algebraic topo ...

, and the

homeomorphism In mathematics and more specifically in topology, a homeomorphism ( from Greek roots meaning "similar shape", named by Henri Poincaré), also called topological isomorphism, or bicontinuous function, is a bijective and continuous function ...

s of

s, and supervised eight doctoral students. (A ninth student completed a doctorate in 1999, the year of Hamstrom's retirement.)

References

External links

Mary-Elizabeth Hamstrom Papers, 1929–2004
University of Illinois Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamstrom, Mary-Elizabeth 1927 births 2009 deaths Mathematicians from Pennsylvania Scientists from Pittsburgh 20th-century American mathematicians American topologists University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni Goucher College faculty and staff University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty 21st-century American women 20th-century American women mathematicians