Mildred Sanderson


Mildred Leonora Sanderson was an American mathematician, best known for her mathematical theorem concerning modular invariants.

Life

Sanderson was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1889 and was the valedictorian of her class at the Waltham High School. She graduated from Mount [Holyoke College] in 1910, winning Senior Honors in Mathematics. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1913, publishing the thesis in which she set forth her mathematical theorem. She was Leonard Eugene Dickson's first female doctoral student.
After completing her Ph.D., Sanderson briefly taught at the University of Wisconsin before her untimely death in 1914 due to tuberculosis.

Sanderson's theorem

Sanderson's theorem states:
"To any modular invariant of a system of forms under any group of linear transformations with coefficients in the field, there corresponds a formal invariant under such that for all sets of values in the field of the coefficients of the system of forms." Often this theorem was cited as “Miss Sanderson’s Theorem”.

Recognition

She is mentioned in the 2008 book Pioneering [Women in American Mathematics|Pioneering women in American mathematics: the pre-1940 PhD's], by Judy [Green (mathematician)|Judy Green] and Jeanne LaDuke.