Grace Chisholm Young, mathematician and ‘wife’ – 10/01/2024 – Marcelo Viana
Grace Chisholm (1868–1944) studied mathematics with William Young (1863–1942) at Cambridge University. He then went to the University of Göttingen, in Germany, where he obtained his doctorate in 1895, under the direction of Felix Klein.
His thesis deals with spherical trigonometry, that is, the study of the angles of triangles on a sphere. The following year she returned to England, where she married her former teacher, William Young, whom she convinced to also become a mathematics researcher.
We know that much of William’s scientific work was done jointly with Grace, although it is not entirely clear which ones. The reason is that the husband did not welcome the idea of sharing the credit. “The fact is that our articles should be signed by both of us, but if that were done neither of us would benefit from it. No. Now, the laurels and the knowledge are mine. For you, only the knowledge. Currently, you cannot make a public career. You have our children.” The couple had six children, two of whom, Lawrence and Cecilia, became mathematicians.
The arrangement worked well for William: he became a mathematician renowned for his contributions to measure theory, Fourier analysis, the study of complex-variable functions, and other areas of mathematics. Among several distinctions, in 1907 he was elected member of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s academy of sciences, and presided over the International Mathematical Union from 1929 to 1932, a critical period in the entity’s history: torn apart by geopolitical tensions, at the end of his mandate the organization dissolved and had to be refounded after the world conflict.
Grace was born into a wealthy family. Prevented by her parents from studying medicine, she opted for mathematics. Because she was a woman, both her entry into the Göttingen doctoral school and her completion of the course had to be approved directly by the German government. She published joint works with her husband from 1901 onwards, and her first article alone in 1914. The following year, she was awarded the Gamble Prize from the University of Cambridge, for publishing the work “Infinite Derivatives”.
Grace spoke six foreign languages and taught each of her children to play a musical instrument. Alongside her career as a mathematician, she also obtained a degree in medicine and published two scientific popularization books for children (one of them explaining where babies come from).
The death of his eldest son, Frank, a pilot in the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the First World War, was a severe blow that affected his health. In the mid-1920s, he stopped working as a mathematician.
In 1940, the events of the Second World War led to her separation from William; She in England, he in Switzerland. Both died shortly afterwards. In 1996, granddaughter Sylvia Wiegand, who is also a mathematician, established an award in honor of her grandparents at the North American University of Nebraska.
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