Emily Kathryn Wyant facts for kids

Emily Kathryn Wyant (born in 1897, died in 1942) was an American mathematician. She is famous for starting Kappa Mu Epsilon. This is a special group, called an honor society, for college students who are great at math.

Early Life and School Days

Emily Wyant was born on January 16, 1897, in Ipava, Illinois. Her father was a student and later owned a shop in Bolivar, Missouri. Emily finished high school there in 1914.

She went to the University of Missouri. She studied part-time and during summers. To pay for her studies, she worked as a school teacher. She earned her first degree in education in 1921.

Becoming a Mathematician

After getting her first degree, Emily became a math teacher at the University of Missouri. She kept studying there too. She earned a master's degree in physics in 1922. She also studied math as a minor subject.

In 1929, she earned her Ph.D., which is a very high degree. Her special research was about a topic called The Ideals in the Algebra of Generalized Quaternions over the Field of Rational Numbers. This was part of algebraic number theory. She also studied astronomy as a minor subject for her Ph.D.

Her Career and Later Years

In 1930, Dr. Wyant became a math professor. She taught at the Northeastern State Teachers College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In 1933, she left Oklahoma to do more research at the University of Chicago.

The next year, in 1934, she started a new job. She became the head of the math department at Athens College in Athens, Alabama. She retired early in 1940 because she was not feeling well. Emily Wyant passed away on July 16, 1942.

Involvement in Math Groups

Emily Wyant was very active in several math groups. She was part of Pi Mu Epsilon, which is another math honor society. She also joined Sigma Delta Epsilon, a group for women graduate students in science. And she was involved with the Mathematical Association of America.

She became the national president of Sigma Delta Epsilon in 1926. In 1927, she led the Missouri section of the Mathematical Association of America. She was the first woman to hold this leadership role in that group.

Founding Kappa Mu Epsilon

While at Northeastern State Teachers College, Dr. Wyant helped create a new national math honor society. There was already a local math club at the college. She worked to turn it into a bigger, national group called Kappa Mu Epsilon.

This new society officially started in April 1931. Emily Wyant was chosen as its first leader. Her title was "President Pythagoras." She worked hard to connect with teachers at other colleges. Because of her efforts, Kappa Mu Epsilon quickly grew and spread to many schools. She was followed by the second president, J. A. G. Shirk, in 1935.

Later, she became the historian for the society. Even when her health was not good, she traveled with a nurse to the group's national meeting in Missouri in 1941.