Sheila Christina Tinney (''née'' Power; 15 January 1918 – 27 March 2010) was an Irish

mathematical physicist Mathematical physics is the development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of ...

. Her 1941 PhD from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, completed under the supervision of

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a ...

in just two years, is believed to make her the first Irish-born and -raised woman to receive a doctorate in the mathematical sciences.

Life

Sheila Christina Power was the fourth of six children born in

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

city to Michael Power .k.a. Mícheál de Paor, originally from rural Kilkenny, Chair of Mathematics at University College Galway">Kilkenny.html" ;"title=".k.a. Mícheál de Paor, originally from rural Kilkenny">.k.a. Mícheál de Paor, originally from rural Kilkenny, Chair of Mathematics at University College Galway (UCG) from 1912 to 1955] and Christina Cunniffe (who died in childbirth when Sheila was 12). She was educated by the Dominican nuns, both in Galway and in Dublin, and was awarded Honours in Mathematics in the Leaving Certificate Examination (the nation's secondary school exit exam), one of only 8 girls to do so in the whole country. After one year attending UCG, she switched to

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

(UCD), from which she graduated with a BSc in 1938, with First Class Honours in Mathematics, and ranked at the top of her class. She did her Master's at UCD in 1939, and was subsequently awarded a

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

travelling studentship, which enabled her to undertake research at the

in Scotland. Two years later, in 1941, she earned her doctorate under the supervision of the celebrated physicist

on the stability of

crystal lattice In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystal, crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from intrinsic nature of constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that ...

s. Returning to Dublin, she became an assistant lecturer at University College Dublin, and was also one of the first three scholars appointed to the brand new

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) () is a statutory independent research institute in Dublin, Ireland. It was established, under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act 1940, by the government of the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Vale ...

(DIAS), in October 1941. While at the DIAS she worked with

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...

Arthur Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lu ...

and

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

. She developed a great interest in

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

, and wrote papers with Schrödinger,

Hideki Yukawa Hideki Yukawa (; ; 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981) was a Japanese theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1949 "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces". B ...

, and

Walter Heitler Walter Heinrich Heitler (; 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a German physicist who made contributions to quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory. He brought chemistry under quantum mechanics through his theory of valence bondi ...

. She remained at DIAS (on a part-time basis) until the summer of 1948. From September 1948 to June 1949 she took a leave of absence from UCD and was a visiting scholar 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 ...

in Princeton where worked in an environment that included

Freeman Dyson Freeman John Dyson (15 December 1923 – 28 February 2020) was a British-American theoretical physics, theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrix, random matrices, math ...

Hermann Weyl Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl (; ; 9 November 1885 – 8 December 1955) was a German mathematician, theoretical physicist, logician and philosopher. Although much of his working life was spent in Zürich, Switzerland, and then Princeton, New Jersey, ...

Harish-Chandra Harish-Chandra (né Harishchandra) FRS (11 October 1923 – 16 October 1983) was an Indian-American mathematician and physicist who did fundamental work in representation theory, especially harmonic analysis on semisimple Lie groups. Early ...

, and

Albert 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 ...

. She developed the first mathematical courses on quantum mechanics at UCD and taught the subject to generations of students there, until her early retirement in 1979. In 1952, she married Seán Tinney, a former engineering student she had lectured, and the couple's three children include classical pianist

Hugh Tinney Hugh Tinney (born 1958) is an Irish pianist. Biography Tinney was a pupil at Gonzaga College, Dublin through the 1970s, and studied physics at Trinity College Dublin. In 1983 he won the first prize of the International Ettore Pozzoli Piano C ...

Pioneer and role model for women in academia

By 1900 the campaign for the acceptance of women in academia was largely successful, and even

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

began admitting women in 1904. But the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

(RIA) threw up legal obstacles and did not bow to the inevitable until 1949 when it finally admitted four women–one of them Sheila Tinney. In 2016 the RIA honoured Tinney by hanging her portrait along with 11 other female academic leaders on its walls. Even at University College Dublin, Tinney faced the entrenched prejudice against women. One professor emeritus recalls the sympathy she received when, early in her career, she was passed over for promotion in favour of a younger, and demonstrably less academically qualified, male colleague. During her time at UCD she gained a reputation for helping younger female colleagues who were trying to develop their careers.

Legacy

The special medal cast for the 25 Global Winners of

The Undergraduate Awards The Global Undergraduate Awards (often referred to as the Junior Nobel Prize) is an academic awards program recognising undergraduate work. Prizes are awarded to 25 disciplines by a non-profit organisation under the patronage of the President of ...

in 2016 (presented 10 November in Dublin) honoured Sheila Tinney, "trail-blazing and brilliant academic, who achieved astounding success through self-belief and determination." In 2016, the

RIA A ria (; , feminine noun derived from ''río'', river) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendriti ...

unveiled a portrait of Tinney by Vera Klute as part of the Women on Walls exhibition. In August 2018, a plaque was unveiled in UCD in honour of Tinney. A new portrait of the pioneering mathematical physicist Dr. Sheila Tinney was unveiled at the

(DIAS) on 15 January 2019 to mark the 101st anniversary of her birth. The portrait – by artist Judith Henihan – was acquired by DIAS thanks to support from the International Women's Forum (Ireland) and benefactors from the ‘Friends of DIAS’ initiative.

Papers

* * * * *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tinney, Sheila 20th-century Irish mathematicians 21st-century Irish mathematicians Irish women mathematicians Quantum physicists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of University College Dublin Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Members of the Royal Irish Academy 1918 births 2010 deaths Academics of University College Dublin Scientists from County Galway Irish women physicists Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies People from Galway (city)