1868-1944

British Mathematician

Several years before Emmy Noether (1882-1935) entered the University of Göttingen, Grace Chisholm Young earned her doctorate there in 1895, becoming the first woman to officially receive a Ph.D. in any field from a German university. Later, she conducted research in derivatives of real functions, which yielded the Denjoy-Saks-Young theorem. Other important work appeared as a collaboration between Young and her husband, William Henry Young (1863-1942).

The youngest of Henry and Anna Bell Chisholm's three surviving children, Young was born on March 15, 1868, in Haslemere, Surrey, England. Her father was a civil servant who became director of Britain's bureau of weights and measures, and her brother Hugh later earned distinction as editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica's eleventh edition. Initially she wanted to study medicine, something her mother forbade, so in 1889 Young entered Girton College, a school for women...