Person: Mackinnon, Annie Fitch
Annie MacKinnon was the third woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics from an American university. She was a postdoctoral student at Göttingen with Felix Klein, then a Professor of Mathematics at Wells College, New York. She gave up her career when she married Edward Fitch.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Annie Gilbert had been born on 11 July 1842 in Toronto, Canada.
- Malcolm MacKinnon declared his intention to become a naturalised American citizen on 25 January 1871 and was naturalised on 9 June 1875.
- Annie grew up in Concordia and was educated at Concordia High School.
- This university had only been opened in 1866 and the first class graduated in 1873, only two years before MacKinnon began her studies there.
- MacKinnon majored in mathematics and graduated with a B.S. in 1889; she then continued to undertake graduate work at the University.
- MacKinnon was awarded a Master's Degree from the University of Kansas in 1891 and continued to teach at Lawrence High School for one further year while she undertook research at the University of Kansas advised by Henry Byron Newson (1860-1910).
- MacKinnon spent one year as Henry Newson's student before she enrolled at Cornell University in October 1892 to undertake research for a Ph.D. advised by James Edward Oliver (1829-1895).
- MacKinnon was awarded the Erastus Brooks Fellowship for session 1893-94 and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1894 for her thesis Concomitant Binary Forms in Terms of the Roots.
- He had sailed to New York in January 1883 and was an instructor at Cornell (1884-90), and an assistant professor (1890-1904), during the time MacKinnon studied for her Ph.D. He was appointed to a full professorship in 1904.
- An Association of Collegiate Alumnae European Fellowship funded MacKinnon for postdoctoral work at Göttingen in 1894-95 to be supervised by Felix Klein.
- A Women's Education Association of Boston European Fellowship funded MacKinnon for a second year at Göttingen.
- Three Americans who were studying at Göttingen at the same time as MacKinnon should be mentioned here.
- John H Tanner, who was awarded a B.S. in 1891, had been an Instructor in Mathematics at Cornell in 1892-94, the two years that MacKinnon was at Cornell, and was then two years at Göttingen, the same two years 1894-96 during which MacKinnon studied there.
- The third person who was at Göttingen at this time that we must mention was Edward Fitch, an assistant professor of Greek at Hamilton College, who was undertaking research for his doctorate.
- After she returned to the United States from the two years spent in Göttingen, MacKinnon was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Wells College in 1896.
- It was a small college and MacKinnon was the only member of the mathematics department, teaching the whole mathematics syllabus.
- Edward Fitch had been born on 21 May 1864 to George William Fitch and Harriet Sinclair in Walton, New York.
- This does not contradict the above quote since Kirkland, where the Fitchs lived, is in the Clinton area, as is Hamilton College.
- Annie Fitch was buried in Hamilton College Cemetery, Clinton.
Born 1 June 1868, Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. Died 12 September 1940, Kirkland, Oneida County, New York, USA.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Canada, Women
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
