Marjorie Senechal facts for kids

Marjorie Lee Senechal (born in 1939) is an American mathematician and a historian of science. She is a retired professor of mathematics and history of science and technology at Smith College. She also used to be the editor-in-chief of The Mathematical Intelligencer, a magazine about mathematics.

In mathematics, Marjorie Senechal is well-known for her studies on tessellations and quasicrystals. Tessellations are like patterns made of shapes that fit together without any gaps, like tiles on a floor. Quasicrystals are special materials with unique atomic structures that don't repeat in a simple way. She has also researched ancient Parthian electric batteries and written several books about silk.

About Marjorie Senechal's Life

Marjorie Senechal was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1939. She was the oldest of four children. Her father, Abraham Wikler, was a doctor who worked for the United States Public Health Service. Her family moved to Lexington, Kentucky, when she was young.

She attended the Training School of the University of Kentucky. This was a small school with only one class for each grade. Marjorie later shared that the school's easy lessons and some unfair treatment made her unhappy.

She left Lafayette High School after the 11th grade. She then started college at the University of Chicago in 1960. She first planned to study medicine but soon changed her focus to mathematics.

While studying for her advanced degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology, she married Lester Senechal, who was also a mathematician. She moved to Arizona with him. She completed her Ph.D. in 1965. Her research was about functional equations, which are special types of math problems. Her advisor was Abe Sklar.

After finishing her degree, she and her husband traveled to Brazil with a Fulbright Scholarship. Later, they moved to Massachusetts. There, Marjorie Senechal began working as a professor at Smith College. She stayed at Smith College for her entire career. In 1989, she married photographer Stan Sherer. She retired from teaching in 2007.

In 2006, a special event was held to celebrate her upcoming retirement. It included a musical play that she helped write. The play was about aperiodic tilings, which are patterns that don't repeat regularly, and the life of an amateur mathematician named Robert Ammann.

Awards and Recognitions

Marjorie Senechal has received several awards for her work.

• In 1982, she won the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award from the Mathematical Association of America. This award is given for excellent writing in Mathematics Magazine. She won it for her article called "Which Tetrahedra Fill Space?"
• In 2008, her book American Silk 1830 – 1930 received the Millia Davenport Publication Award. This award is given by the Costume Society of America.
• In 2012, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This is a special honor for mathematicians.

Books Written by Marjorie Senechal

Marjorie Senechal has written several books on mathematics and history:

• Crystalline Symmetries: An informal mathematical introduction ISBN: 978-0-7503-0041-4 (Published in 1990)
• Quasicrystals and Geometry ISBN: 978-0-521-37259-6 (Published in 1995)
• Long Life to Your Children! A portrait of High Albania ISBN: 978-1-55849-097-0 (Written with photographer S. Sherer, published in 1997)
• Northampton's Century of Silk ISBN: 978-0-9600828-3-4 (Published in 2004)
• American Silk 1830 – 1930: Entrepreneurs and Artifacts ISBN: 978-0-89672-589-8 (Written with Jacqueline Field and Madelyn Shaw, published in 2007)
• I Died For Beauty: Dorothy Wrinch and the Cultures of Science ISBN: 978-0-19-973259-3 (Published in 2012)