Alice Jeanne LaDuke (born June 27, 1938) is an American mathematician who specialized in mathematical analysis and the history of mathematics. She was also a child actress who appeared in one film (The Green Promise).

Early life and film career

LaDuke was raised on a farm in Posey County,[1] in southwest Indiana. Her parents were college-educated and an aunt who taught mathematics in Chicago frequently visited, bringing mathematics puzzles for LaDuke.[2]

As a child, she was cast from a field of 12,000 4-H members to play a small part in The Green Promise (1948)[1] as farm girl Jessie Wexford, the sister of Natalie Wood's character's love interest.[3] Wood and LaDuke shared a tutor who taught them both string games as well as their school curriculum.[4]

Education

LaDuke studied mathematics at DePauw University in the 1950s, and roomed with another mathematics major from Oregon, who showed her the state on summer camping trips.[2]

She earned a master's degree in mathematics, but was unable to obtain a teaching position with it because the schools she applied to only hired men. She returned to Oregon in 1966 as a doctoral student at the University of Oregon,[2] and completed her Ph.D. in 1969 with a dissertation in mathematical analysis supervised by Kenneth A. Ross on Ep Space: Essentially a Product of Cp Spaces.[5]

Mathematics career

After completing her doctorate, LaDuke spent the following thirty years as a faculty member of the department of mathematical sciences at DePaul University.[2] She retired in 2003.[6]

With Judy Green, she is the author of Pioneering Women in American Mathematics: The Pre-1940 PhD’s (American Mathematical Society and London Mathematical Society, 2009).[7] An annual lecture series on Women in Mathematics, Science, and Technology at DePaul is named after her.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Manifold, Sara (April 27, 2011), "Movie star native will return to Mount Vernon for showing", Mount Vernon Democrat
  2. ^ a b c d Ryan, Catherine (Autumn 2010), "Not by the Numbers: On her own unconventional path, Jeanne LaDuke details the early history of women in American mathematics", Oregon Quarterly, University of Oregon, archived from the original on 2017-11-10, retrieved 2017-11-09
  3. ^ Sullivan, Rebecca (2016), Natalie Wood, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 23, ISBN 9781844576708
  4. ^ Finstad, Suzanne (2009), Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood, Crown/Archetype, p. 75, ISBN 9780307428660
  5. ^ Jeanne LaDuke at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  6. ^ Mathematical Sciences Faculty & Staff, DePaul University College of Science and Health, retrieved 2017-11-09
  7. ^ Reviews of Pioneering Women in American Mathematics:
  8. ^ Hayda, Julian (October 1, 2014), "Field Museum Chief Curiosity Correspondent Emily Graslie discusses women in STEM at DePaul", The DePaula

External links

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