Olga taussky todd biography of george

She was the second of three children. Ilona, three years older than Olga, became a consulting chemist in the glyceride industry, and Hertha, three years younger than Olga, became a pharmacist and later a clinical chemist at Cornell University Medical College in New York City.

A self-proclaimed torchbearer for matrix theory, Olga Taussky-Todd made the previously little-known field essential for scientists and mathematicians.

At the age of three, her family moved to Vienna and lived there until the middle of World War I. Later Taussky's father accepted a position as director of a vinegar factory at Linz in Upper Austria. At a young age, Taussky displayed a keen interest in mathematics. After her father died during her last year at school, she worked through the summer at her father's vinegar factory and was pressured by her family to study chemistry in order to take over her father's work.

Her elder sister, however, qualified in chemistry and took over her father's work. In " Red Vienna " of the day, the Social Democratic Party of Austria encouraged woman to pursue higher education, [ 6 ] and Taussky enrolled at the University of Vienna in the fall of to study mathematics. Taussky is best known for her work in matrix theory in particular the computational stability of complex matrices , algebraic number theory, group theory , and numerical analysis.

According to Gian-Carlo Rota , as a young mathematician she was hired by a group of German mathematicians to find and correct the many mathematical errors in the works of David Hilbert , so that they could be collected into a volume to be presented to him on his birthday. There was only one paper, on the continuum hypothesis , that she was unable to repair.

Soon after, in , she married the Irish mathematician Jack Todd , a colleague at the University of London. During this time she wrote several articles that were published by the Ministry of Aircraft Production in London.

Olga Taussky-Todd, teacher, mathematician, and lifetime torchbearer for matrix theory, died on Oct. 7, , in Pasadena, Calif.

She later described herself as a torchbearer for matrix theory. In she and her husband both joined the faculty of California Institute of Technology Caltech in Pasadena, California. She also supervised Caltech's first female Ph. Hanlon , and Charles Royal Johnson.