Anna Pell Wheeler Biography

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Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler was born Anna Johnson on May 5, 1883 in Hawarden, Iowa. Her maiden name is Anna Johnson. She was the third daughter of Swedish immigrants. Her parents names are Andrew and Amelia Johnson.She lived there until the age of nine when her family moved to Akron, Ohio. There she was enrolled into a private school. After Anna graduated from high school in 1899 she enrolled into the University of South Dakota. Anna's sister, who also enrolled at the university, rented a room from the mathematics professor, Alexander Pell, with her. Alexander Pell encouraged Anna to continue her studies after earning her A.B. degree in 1903 after he recognizing her exceptional mathematical abilities.
After Anna graduated from the University of South Dakota she began graduate work at the University of Iowa. She then made a thesis The extension of Galois theory to linear differential equations, which earned her a masters degree in 1904. One year later she earned a second graduate degree from Radcliffe College. At Radcliffe College she took courses from Maxime Bocher and William Fogg Osgood.
She won an Alice Freeman Palmer Fellowship from Wellesley College in 1905. This granted her one year at the University of Gottingen. There she studied under David Hilbert, Felix Klein, Hermann Minkowski, and Karl Schwarzschild. Her relationship with Alexander Pell while she worked toward a doctorate intensified. After her year at at the University of Gottingen Alexander Pell traveled to Gottingen. There they were married in July of 1907. Pell was a former Russian double agent whose real name was Sergey Degayev. This made the trip to Gottingen a significant threat to his life.
The Pells returned to Vermilion, South Dakota after the wedding. T...

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... an excellent teacher who inspired all of her students, even if they were undergraduates, with her huge love for mathematics. Aware of the difficulties of women being mathematicians, seven women under her direction received doctorates at Bryn Mawr. Anna took her students to mathematical meetings oftenly. She also urged the women to participate on an equal professional level with men. She had great enthusiasm to teach all she knew about mathematics. She loved learning all she could about mathematics. Anna was a big contributor to mathematics. Anna was gifted in this department. She spent most of her life trying to achieve her accomplishments. She truly is a hero to women. She achieved all of these accomplishments when women mathematicians were very uncommon. She deserved all the awards and achievements she won. Judy Green and Jeanne Laduke, science historians, stated,

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