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http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Todd_O

Photo by Joe Munroe, 1960.

OLGA TAUSSKY-TODD(1906-1995)

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 1979-1980

EDITED BY

MARY TERRALL

ARCHIVES

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Pasadena, California

Subject area

Mathematics

AbstractThis autobiographical essay was written for the Archives in 1979-80 by Olga

Taussky-Todd, emeritus professor of mathematics. In it she recalls her childhoodand early education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Vienna and Linz; her

early interest in mathematics; her studies at the University of Vienna; and her

interest in algebraic number theory (PhD 1930). Recollections of her thesisadvisor Philip Furtwngler, Hans Hahn, Kurt Gdel, Karl Menger; her

appointment in Gttingen as one of the editors of Hilberts collected works;

colleagues at Gttingen; friendship with Emmy Noether. She spends the 1934-35

academic year at Bryn Mawr, with Emmy Noether, then moves to Girton College,Cambridge. The next year she moves to London University; meets and marries

fellow mathematician John (Jack) Todd. After World War II breaks out, they

move to Queens University in Belfast, then back to London; their war work; theirmove to U.S.A. in 1947. Her interest in matrix theory; their stay at the Institute

for Advanced Study, in Princeton. Their appointment at the Institute for

Numerical Analysis, UCLA. Return to London. Their work at the NationalBureau of Standards, in Washington, in early 1950s. 1957 appointments at

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Caltech: John Todd as professor of mathematics, Olga Taussky-Todd as research

associate. Recollections of her mathematical research, her colleagues, and herwork with students at Caltech.

Ed. note: This essay was reprinted in Albers and Alexanderson (eds.),

Mathematical People: Profiles and Interviews(Boston: Birkhauser, 1985).

Administrative information

Access

The autobiographical memoir is unrestricted.

Copyright

Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology 1980,

2003. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be

submitted in writing to the University Archivist.

Preferred citation

Taussky-Todd, Olga. Edited by Mary Terrall. Pasadena, California, 1980. Oral

History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supplydate of retrieval] from the World Wide Web:


Contact information

Archives, California Institute of Technology

Mail Code 015A-74

Pasadena, CA 91125Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)793-8756

Email: [email protected]

Graphics and content 2003 California Institute of Technology.

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Portrait of John and Olga Taussky-Todd by Sylvia Posner, 1985.

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