Florence Marie Mears

Florence Marie Mears (May 18, 1896, Baltimore, Maryland - December 2, 1995) was a professor of mathematics at George Washington University.

Background and Education

Dr. Mears attended Baltimore public schools. She received her undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Goucher College, earning a Phi Beta Kappa Key. She received a Masters degree from Cornell University in 1924 after completing her thesis on "A Special Function of One Variable." She also went on to achieve her doctorate from Cornell in 1927 following her thesis on the "Riesz Summability for Double Series."

Career

Mears's first job as a college professor was at the Women’s College of Alabama; she soon left to become an associate professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State College, and then joined George Washington University 1n 1929.

There she was known for her popularity among both her students and fellow faculty members. She was considered by the university’s President as "one of the greatest teachers of mathematics in the entire country." During her first year at The George Washington University, Mears taught as an assistant professor of mathematics in the Columbian College, and held her office directly on campus on 2033 G Street. At the beginning of her career at GW, Mears was the only woman in the mathematics department, which included seven other professors.

Dr. Mears earned the title of being a master teacher, which according to the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences is due to her excellent teaching skills, and contributions in research and the math department. Among the many classes that she taught were Advanced Calculus, Introduction to Analysis, Introduction to Infinite Series, and Fourier Series and Spherical Harmonics. In 1955, George Washington University awarded her with an Alumni Citation for twenty-five years of distinguished service. In 1958, the University of California selected her as one of ten female mathematicians to work on a project studying creativity. In 1962 she became a member of an examining committee, which focused on selecting doctoral dissertations in mathematics for the University of Allahabad in India.

Mears specialized in the findings of definitions and values assigned to various infinite series of numbers. An "infinite series" is an endless series of numbers, each succeeding the other that is a certain amount lesser or greater than the proceeding one. An example set of an infinite series includes is 1 + ½ + ¼ etc. in which the definition of the series can be defined as the number two. As a result, Dr. Mears created several theorems about these definitions, many of which provided truth for many practicing mathematicians, engineers, chemists, physicists, and astronomers. One of her most popular theorems called the Norlund Mean can be explained through absolute regularity, the summability of Cauchy products, and inverse properties.

Awards

Dr. Mears's participation in professional, honorary, and civic organizations included a professional membership in the American Math Society, and in the American Math Association. Her various honorary memberships included the Washington Academy of Science, Phi Beta Kappa (1927), Phi Kappa Phi (1927), and Sigma XI (1924). In addition she also held several fellowships at Cornell University during the years 1925 to 1927. Mears also published several articles and book reviews in leading mathematical journals.

tudents

Mears helped Janos Edvard Hanson and Joseph Blum earn their Ph.D.s from the George Washington University. Joseph Blum earned his Ph.D. in 1958 following his completion of his dissertation on Banach Spaces Functionals and Matrix Summability Method. Two years later, Mears would also aid Janos Edvard Hanson in earning his Ph.D. in 1960, after writing his final dissertation on Linear Sequence Spaces, which permit omission and adjunction and have Finite Dimension Modulo Convergence.

She was named Professor Emerita of Mathematics in 1965. Mears passed away on December 2, 1995. She was considered not only one of the George Washington University’s greatest mathematicians, but also one of the finest and most active mathematicians in the United States of America..

References

*AMS. "Deaths." Mathematics People. June 1996. AMS. 4, Nov. 2007. [http://www.ams.org/notices/199606/people.pdf]
*Blum, Joseph. Banach Space Functionals and Matrix Summability Methods. Washington D.C.: The George Washington University, 1958.
*Cochell, Gary G. "Cornell Mathematics at the end of the century." Cornell University: Department of Mathematics. 7. April 7. 2003. 2. Dec. 2007. [http://www.math.cornell.edu/General/History/historyP6.html]
*Gelman Library. Special Collections. G.W. Math Professors Binder (No call numbers).“Florence M. Mears”. November 4, 2007.
*Mears, Florence M. "Some Multiplication Theorems of the Norlund mean." Project Euclid. 2007. Cornell University. 4, Nov. 2007. [http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=euclid.bams]
*North Dakota State University. "Joseph Blum." The Mathematics Genealogy Project. 16. Dec 2007. [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=25157]
*North Dakota State University. "Virgil Snyder." The Mathematics Genealogy Project. 16. Dec. 2007. [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=7441]
*North Dakota State University. "Florence Marie Mears." The Mathematics Genealogy Project. 16. Dec. 2007. [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=25156]
*North Dakota State University. "Janos Hanson." The Mathematics Genealogy Project. 16. Dec. 2007. [http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=27154]
*O'Connor, J.J. & Robertson, E.F. "Virgil Snyder." School of Mathematics and Statistics. Oct. 1997. 16. Dec. 2007. [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Snyder.html]
*The George Washington University. The George Washington University Bulletin Catalogue From 1929-30. Washington D.C.: The George Washington University, 1929.
*The George Washington University. The George Washington University Catalogue From 1955-56. Vol. 54 (4). Washington D.C.: The George Washington University, 1955.
*Unknown. "Ph. Ds awarded by the Department of Mathematics." Department Of Mathematics. The George Washington University. 4, Nov. 2007. [http://www.gwu.edu/~math/graduate/phdsawarded.html]