Once again this term I hope to motivate and enlighten you with the tales of women mathematicians. We begin this term's series on a positive note. The story of Olga Taussky-Todd is not one of discrimination and sexism, but of a brilliant woman whose life was filled with inspired mathematics, and wonderful collaborations. Taussky contributed to many areas of number theory and matrix theory, and did much fundamental work on Hilbert's 19th problem on sums of squares.
Born Olga Taussky in 1906 in what was then Olmütz in the Austrian Hungarian Empire (now Olomouc Czechoslovakia), she grew in a family that had great respect for education. Her father was an industrial chemist who recognized her mathematical talent. He gave her math chores such as dilution problems, and posted her solutions in his factory.
She began her academic training in chemistry at the University of Vienna, where she studied under Hans Hahn (of the Hahn-Banach theorem fame), Karl Menger, and Philip Furtwängler. She began her research career with Furtwängler, working on David Hilbert's conjectures in class field theory. In 1930, at the age of 24, she received her doctoral degree.
Based on this thesis she was invited to Gottingen to edit Hilbert's work. While at Gottingen she was kept busy with teaching duties. She was able to work with many mathematicians here, including Emmy Noether.
Political tensions arose around this time, and like many other Jewish intellectuals, she left Germany. She returned to Vienna briefly to work again with Hahn and Menger, and subsequently worked briefly at Bryn Mawr College. There she was reunited with Emmy Noether.
In 1935 she returned to Europe as part of a science fellowship. However, no one shared her interests at Girton College Cambridge. The female head of Girton college insisted that students avoid working under Taussky. In her opinion, it would be damaging to their career to have a woman supervisor. Two years later she succeeded in obtaining a junior level teaching position at Westfield College. It was there that she began a collaborative relationship with John Todd. They were married in 1938.
In 1943 Taussky took on a research position in aerodynamics with the Ministry of Aircraft production in the ``Flutter Group'' at the National Physical Laboratory. The problem reduced to stability problems of a certain matrix. It was there that Taussky developed interest in matrix theory. In 1947 she and her husband accepted positions at the National Bureau of Standards in the United States. During this time she wrote several papers and lectured at Caltech.
Olga and John both received an offer to join the faculty of Caltech in 1957. It was a standard situation at the time: The husband was offered a professorship and the wife a research assistantship, despite the fact that they had similar duties and equivalently sized offices. Here Olga conducted many seminars and supervised many theses. The Los Angeles Times proclaimed her woman of the year in 1964. An honour none of her (all male...) colleagues at the time ever managed. She was granted the Ford Prize for her paper Sums of Squares in 1970 and the following year, the honour of Professor Emeritus from CalTech.
The University of Vienna awarded her a Golden doctorate in 1980 for her achievements in research and in teaching. She carries the Gold Cross of Honour First Class of the Austrian Republic and has been elected to both the Austrian and Bavarian Academies of Sciences.
Olga was known by her contemporaries as someone whose zest for mathematics was deeply rooted and contagious. She helped revitalize matrix theory (linear algebra), and began the foundation for the sums of squares problem. She did not face many of the barriers that earlier women faced, such as Emmy Noether who was only a generation before her. She had a supportive family and husband and eventually was granted a full professorship in a good school.
Her life came to an end just last year. There have been many rememberances commemorating her work since then. The mathematical world will surely miss Olga Taussky-Todd and her enthusiastic mathematics.
Marni Mishna
mjmishna@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
Copyright © mathNEWS 1997.