Marjorie Hahn facts for kids
Marjorie "Molly" Greene Hahn, born on December 30, 1948, is an amazing American mathematician and tennis player. She is known for her important work in probability theory, which is a part of mathematics that studies chance and uncertainty. Molly Hahn also researched complex topics like central limit theorems, stochastic processes (which are like random changes over time), and stochastic differential equations. She used to be a professor of mathematics at Tufts University.
Molly's Education Journey
Molly Greene started her college studies at Stanford University and finished in 1971. After that, she went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for her advanced degrees. In 1973, she married Peter Florin Hahn.
Marjorie Hahn earned her Ph.D. (a very high degree) in 1975. Her main research was about "Central Limit Theorems," which are important ideas in probability theory.
Working as a Mathematician
After finishing her studies, Molly Hahn joined Tufts University as a professor in 1977. She was a very active teacher and guided 16 students through their doctoral research, which was more than anyone else in her department! One of her students was Weiwen Miao, who became a legal statistician. Molly retired from Tufts University in 2016.
In 1985, Molly Hahn was chosen as a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. This is a special honor given to top researchers in her field.
Molly's Tennis Career
Besides being a brilliant mathematician, Molly Hahn is also a talented tennis player. She played on the Stanford University tennis team from 1967 to 1971. She even had the chance to play tennis professionally, but she chose to focus on her mathematics career instead.
In 2006, Molly's name was added to the United States Tennis Association New England Hall of Fame, recognizing her great achievements in tennis.
She continued to play tennis in senior competitions. In 2008, she played for the U.S. team in the Alice Marble Cup, an international competition, and helped her team win a silver medal. Later, in 2017, she was part of another U.S. team that won the Kitty Godfrey Cup at the International Tennis Federation World Super-Senior team championships. This was for women aged 65 or older!
Molly Hahn once compared mathematics to tennis, saying, "In mathematics, you try to prove things step by step; you attempt to set up a logical method. I approach tennis by using this plan and then adjust on the fly." This shows how her logical thinking from math helped her in sports too!
