Mildred Sanderson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mildred Leonora Sanderson
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| Born | May 12, 1889 Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Died | October 15, 1914 (aged 25) |
| Resting place | Mount Feake Cemetery, Waltham |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Thesis | Formal modular invariants with application to binary modular covariants (1913) |
| Doctoral advisor | Leonard Eugene Dickson |
Mildred Leonora Sanderson (May 12, 1889 – October 10, 1914) was an American mathematician, best known for her mathematical theorem concerning modular invariants.
Life
Sanderson was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1889 and was the valedictorian of her class at the Waltham High School. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1910, winning Senior Honors in Mathematics. She obtained her Ph.D degree from the University of Chicago in 1913, publishing the thesis (Sanderson 1913) in which she set forth her mathematical theorem. She was Leonard Eugene Dickson's first female doctoral student.
After completing her Ph.D., Sanderson briefly taught at the University of Wisconsin before her untimely death in 1914 due to tuberculosis.
Sanderson's theorem
Sanderson's theorem (Sanderson 1913, p.490) states: "To any modular invariant 
of a system of forms under any group 
of linear transformations with coefficients in the field ![{\rm GF}[p^n]](/images/math/6/6/e/66e3751d54ccd465770825fd9252d4c4.png)
, there corresponds a formal invariant 
under such that 
for all sets of values in the field of the coefficients of the system of forms." Often this theorem was cited as “Miss Sanderson’s Theorem”.
Recognition
Leonard Eugene Dickson wrote of her thesis, "This paper is a highly important contribution to this field of work; its importance lies partly in the fact that it establishes a correspondence between modular and formal invariants. Her main theorem has already been frequently quoted on account of its fundamental character. Her proof is a remarkable piece of mathematics."
Eric Temple Bell wrote, "Miss Sanderson's single contribution (1913) to modular invariants has been rated by competent judges as one of the classics of the subject."
A Mildred L. Sanderson prize for excellence in mathematics was established in her honor in 1939 at Mount Holyoke College.
She is mentioned in the 2008 book Pioneering women in American mathematics: the pre-1940 PhD's, by Judy Green and Jeanne LaDuke.
