Edith Hirsch Luchins
Edith H. Luchins ( born December 21, 1921 in Brzeziny, Poland as Edith Hirsch, † 18 November 2002 in Suffern, New York) was an American mathematician and shape psychologist.
Biography
Born in Poland as Edith Hirsch, the eldest of four children, she emigrated with her parents in 1927 to New York City. At Brooklyn College, she earned her first degree in 1942 ( Bachelor's degree) in mathematics. During her time in high school, she attended courses in psychology, which were led by Abraham S. Luchins, a disciple of the founder of Gestalt theory, Max Wertheimer. Thus began not only a passion for psychology, which should say in their lives significantly, but also a partnership in marriage, family and science. In 1944, she earned her master's degree in mathematics at New York University and even began teaching mathematics in the same year at Brooklyn College.
In 1949 she moved with her family for five years to Montreal, where her husband taught at McGill University. After Abraham S. Luchins in 1954 received an appointment at the University of Oregon and they were moved there (they had four children by now ), she took her university maths degree again and graduated in 1957 with a doctorate in Bertram Yood from (On some properties of Banach algebras Certain ).
Subsequently Edith Luchins taught mathematics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1962 until her retirement in 1992. She was the first woman to receive a full professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and one of the first women in the U.S., the larger at a University, a mathematics professor occupied.
1991-1992 she was a visiting professor of mathematics at the United States Military Academy at West Point. After her retirement she continued her teaching and research activities at Rensselaer Institute until shortly before her death continues.
Together with her husband Abraham S. Luchins she published alongside their own mathematical work, a number of important studies on the development of Gestalt theory and was a member of the Advisory Board of the international journal of shape Theory was founded in 1979 to its demise.
Honors
- Rensselaer Distinguished Teaching Award
- Darrin Counseling Award
- Martin Luther King Jr. Award
- Rensselaer Alumni Association Outstanding Faculty Award
- Award for Distinguished Public Service of the United States Military Academy at West Point
- 1998 Honorary Member of the International Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications