Phyllis Ann Fox (March 13, 1923 – May 23, 2017) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer and computer scientist.

Early life and education

Fox was born on March 13, 1923, and raised in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. She did her undergraduate studies at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

, earning a B.A. in mathematics in 1944. From 1944 until 1946 she worked for

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

as an operator for their

differential analyser The differential analyser is a mechanical analogue computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, using wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. It was one of the first advanced computing devices to be used ope ...

project. She earned a second baccalaureate, a B.S. in electrical engineering, from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

in 1948. She then moved on to graduate studies at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, earning an M.S. in 1949 in electrical engineering, and a doctorate (Sc.D.) in mathematics in 1954 under the supervision of Chia-Chiao Lin. During this time, she also worked as an assistant on the

Whirlwind A whirlwind is a phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow ( current) gradients. Whirlwinds can vary in size and last from a cou ...

project at MIT, under

Jay Forrester Jay Wright Forrester (July 14, 1918 – November 16, 2016) was an American computer engineer, management theorist and systems scientist. He spent his entire career at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, entering as a graduate student in 19 ...

Later career

From 1954 to 1958, Fox worked on the numerical solution of

partial differential equations In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to how ...

on the

Univac UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and ...

, for the Computing Center of the

United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry ...

at the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. In 1958, following her husband, she returned to

system dynamics System dynamics (SD) is an approach to understanding the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems over time using stocks, flows, internal feedback loops, table functions and time delays. Overview System dynamics is a methodology and mathematical ...

research group at MIT, where she became part of the team that wrote the DYNAMO programming language.Resume and brief autobiography for Phyllis Fox, for Wellesley College Class of 1944 Record Book, Jan 1974, SIAM history websit

She then became a collaborator on the first

LISP Lisp (historically LISP, an abbreviation of "list processing") is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized Polish notation#Explanation, prefix notation. Originally specified in the late 1950s, ...

interpreter, and the principal author of the first LISP manual. In 1963, she moved from MIT to the Newark College of Engineering, where she became a full professor in 1972. During this time, she also consulted for

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

, where she moved in 1973 to work on a highly portable numerics library (PORT). She retired from Bell Labs in 1984.

Personal life and death

Fox married George Sternlieb. They moved to

Short Hills, New Jersey Short Hills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) situated within Millburn, in Essex County, within the U.S. state of New Jersey, and part of the New York metropolitan area. The community is a commuter town for resi ...

in 1949. Fox died on May 23, 2017, at the age of 94.

Recognition

Fox was named a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

in 1986.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Phyllis 1923 births 2017 deaths American computer scientists American artificial intelligence researchers Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Lisp (programming language) people Programming language designers Wellesley College alumni University of Colorado alumni New Jersey Institute of Technology faculty Numerical analysts American women computer scientists American women mathematicians Scientists at Bell Labs MIT School of Engineering alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American women academics 21st-century American women Scientists from Denver