Sheila May Edmonds (1 April 1916 – 2 September 2002) was a British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, a

Lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, and Vice-Principal of Newnham College from 1960 to 1981.

Early life and education

Born in

Kingston, Kent Kingston is a village and civil parish between Canterbury and Dover in Kent, South East England. The parish contains the hamlet of Marley. History The Kingston Brooch, an important piece of Anglo-Saxon jewellery dating from the 7th Century, ...

, Edmonds studied at

Wimbledon High School Wimbledon High School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private girls' day school in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, South West (London sub region), South West London. It is a Girls' Day School Trust school and is a member of the Girls' ...

and entered Newnham College, Cambridge in 1935 to study for the

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a di ...

. At this time women could attend lectures and sit examinations but were not permitted to graduate with a degree. She had an excellent undergraduate career and finished Part II as a " Wrangler", Cambridge nomenclature for a student achieving a First Class award. Edmonds followed this with a Distinction in Part III, and then studied for a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

with

G. H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...

. During her doctoral research she spent a year at

Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

, London, and a year at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. She was awarded PhD for her dissertation "Some Multiplication Problems" in 1944.

Career

Edmonds's first papers were published while she was studying for her PhD, with two in 1942 on

infinite series In mathematics, a series is, roughly speaking, an addition of infinitely many terms, one after the other. The study of series is a major part of calculus and its generalization, mathematical analysis. Series are used in most areas of mathemati ...

and on

Fourier transform In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input then outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the tr ...

s. These led to a series of papers over the following years, exploring these topics and building on her PhD research into

Parseval's theorem In mathematics, Parseval's theorem usually refers to the result that the Fourier transform is unitary; loosely, that the sum (or integral) of the square of a function is equal to the sum (or integral) of the square of its transform. It originates ...

. She was a dedicated teacher, supervising students in all branches of pure and

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

, as well as lecturing courses in the Mathematical Tripos. Edmonds served on the University Faculty Board of Mathematics for many years, and was its chair in 1975 and 1976. In 1960, Edmonds was appointed Vice-Principal of Newnham, one of the senior offices of the college, a post which she held until her retirement in 1981. She also served on the

University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), branded as Cambridge Assessment, was a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge. It merged with Cambridge University Press to form Cambridge University Press and A ...

and the boards of governors of several schools including Rodean.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Sheila May 1916 births 2002 deaths Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge 20th-century English mathematicians People educated at Wimbledon High School 20th-century British women mathematicians People from Kingston, Kent