Gillian Thornley facts for kids

Gillian Thornley is a brilliant mathematician from New Zealand. She is now retired, but her work has inspired many.

Gillian Brown Thornley was born in 1940 in a place called Murchison. She grew up on her family's dairy farm. Gillian was very smart and won a special scholarship. This allowed her to attend Nelson College for Girls, a boarding school. In 1958, she started studying at Canterbury University. She worked hard and earned a master's degree in mathematics in 1963. She even graduated with top honors! While at Canterbury, she studied alongside another famous scientist, Beatrice Tinsley.

Gillian Thornley's Amazing Career

Gillian Thornley continued her studies and earned her PhD in 1963. She got this advanced degree from the University of Toronto. Her PhD focused on a complex area of math called metric differential geometry.

Teaching and Research

After her PhD, Gillian returned to Canterbury for a short time. Then, she took a teaching job in Trinidad. She worked as a lecturer at the University of The West Indies for two years. After that, she moved back to New Zealand. She lived in Nelson and Wellington. During this time, she balanced her work with raising her two young children. She held part-time jobs in universities and also worked for the government. In her government role, she helped create models to understand the economy.

A Leader in Mathematics

In 1980, Gillian joined the mathematics department at Massey University. This university is in Palmerston North, New Zealand. She stayed there until she retired in 2006.

In 1989, Gillian Thornley made history. She was chosen as the first woman President of the New Zealand Mathematical Society. This was a huge achievement! She also spoke at a big international math conference in 1990. There, she shared her experiences as a woman mathematician in universities. In 2001, she co-wrote an article. It was about what it was like for students getting their math PhDs in New Zealand.

Honoring Her Contributions

To celebrate her important work, the New Zealand Mathematical Society created an award in her name. The Gillian Thornley Award was first given out in 2020. It honors her lasting impact on mathematics.

Selected Works

A textbook co-authored by Gillian Thornley.

• Gillian Thornley and Michael Hendy. "Geometry & Linear Algebra an introduction in two and three dimensions". The Dunmore Press Limited. ISBN: 0864690533 (1986).
• Knight, Gordon, Greg Arnold, Michael Carter, Peter Kelly, and Gillian Thornley. "The mathematical needs of school leavers." Journal issue 1 (1994).
• Morton, Margaret, and Gillian Thornley. "Experiences of doctoral students in mathematics in New Zealand." Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 26, no. 2 (2001): 113–126.
• Senarath, Padma, and Gillian M. Thornley. Locally Projectively Flat Finsler Spaces with ([alpha],[beta])-metrics. Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, 2004.