Lorraine Foster

Lorraine L. Foster
Dr. Foster in 1964. (Photo from the Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection, UCLA Library Digital Collections)
Born(1938-12-25)December 25, 1938
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationB.A. 1960, Occidental College; Ph.D. 1964, California Institute of Technology
OccupationMathematician
EmployerCalifornia 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.

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Lorraine Foster at the Mathematics Genealogy Project