Lorraine L. Foster | |
|---|---|
 Dr. Foster in 1964. (Photo from the Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library Digital Collections) | |
| Born | December 25, 1938 |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | B.A. 1960, Occidental College; Ph.D. 1964, California Institute of Technology |
| Occupation | Mathematician |
| Employer | California State University, Northridge |
Lorraine Lois Foster (December 25, 1938, Culver City, California) is an American mathematician. In 1964 she became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from California Institute of Technology.[1] Her thesis advisor at Caltech was Olga Taussky-Todd.[2] Foster's Erdos number is 2.
Born Lorraine Lois Turnbull, she attended Occidental College where she majored in physics. She was admitted to Caltech after receiving a Woodrow Wilson Foundation fellowship. In 1964 she joined the faculty of California State University, Northridge. She works in number theory and the theory of mathematical symmetry.
- ^ Foster, Lorraine Lois (1964). On the characteristics roots of the product of certain rational matrices of order two (phd). California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/JE7E-1393.
- ^ Lorraine Foster at the Mathematics Genealogy Project