Annita Tuller facts for kids

Annita Tuller (born December 30, 1910 – died August 29, 1994) was an American mathematician. She was also known as Annita Levine after she got married. Annita Tuller wrote an important textbook in 1967. It was called A Modern Introduction to Geometries. She taught as a professor at Lehman College. This college is part of the City University of New York system.

Early Life and Learning

Annita Tuller was born in Brooklyn, New York City. This was on December 30, 1910. Her family came from Russia. Her father was a jeweler. She went to public schools in Brooklyn. She finished Erasmus Hall High School when she was only 14 years old. That same year, she started studying at Hunter College. She graduated from Hunter College in 1929.

After that, she became a graduate student at Bryn Mawr College. She worked with Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler there. Annita earned her master's degree in 1930.

Becoming a Doctor of Math

After her master's, she taught at Hunter College for one year. Then, she became a high school math teacher. She taught at William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens. Her professor, Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler, encouraged her to get a doctorate. So, Annita went back to Bryn Mawr in 1935.

She earned her Ph.D. in 1937. Her Ph.D. paper was about "The Measure of Transitive Geodesics on Certain Three Dimensional Manifolds". It was about a math area called differential geometry.

Working as a Professor

With her Ph.D., Annita Tuller rejoined the Hunter College team in 1937. She took a job that Miriam Becker had before. In 1938, she married Morris Levine. He was a newspaper manager. They had two daughters. Annita used "Annita Levine" in her social life. But she kept using "Tuller" for her professional work.

Moving Up in Her Career

She became an assistant professor in 1949. Then, she became an associate professor in 1961. She became a full professor in 1968. By this time, she was teaching at the Bronx campus of Hunter College. That year, this campus became its own college. It was named Lehman College. She continued to teach at Lehman College. She retired in 1971 as a professor emerita. This means she was a retired professor who kept her title.

After she retired, Annita Tuller moved to Cupertino, California. She died there on August 29, 1994. There is a student award at Lehman College named after her. It is called the Professor Annita Tuller Prize.

Her Book

Annita Tuller wrote a book called A Modern Introduction to Geometries. This book was for college students. It taught about non-Euclidean geometry. This is a type of geometry that is different from the one you learn in school. The D. Van Nostrand Company published it in 1967.