Ada Maddison

Who was Ada Maddison?

Ada Isabel Maddison British mathematician best known for her work on differential equations.

In 1892 Maddison passed the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos Exam, equal to the twenty-seventh Wrangler, but she was not allowed to receive a degree. Instead, she was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Science with Honors from the University of London in 1893. In 1892 she attended Bryn Mawr College, where in 1893 was awarded the resident mathematics fellowship. In 1894 she was the first student to win the Mary E. Garrett Fellowship from Bryn Mawr for study abroad, which she used to study at the University of Göttingen to attend lectures of Felix Klein and David Hilbert. She received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr in 1896 under the direction of Charlotte Scott. Her thesis was titled "Singular solutions of differential equations of the first order in two variables and the geometric properties of certain invariants and covariants of their complete primitives".

She continued working at Bryn Mawr, where she taught as well as doing time consuming administrative work. In 1904 she was appointed both associate professor and assistant to the president. Her will endowed $10,000 in memory of President M. Carey Thomas to be used as a pension fund for Bryn Mawr's administrative staff. She has also put together a thorough listing of university courses open to women at the time in British and Canadian universities. In 1897 she was elected membership to the American Mathematical Society, as well as became a life member of the London Mathematical Society. She was also a member of the Daughters of the British Empire.