Name Agnes Baxter Role Mathematician | Died March 9, 1917 | |
 | ||
Education Dalhousie University, Cornell University | ||
Agnes Sime Baxter (Hill) (18 March 1870 – 9 March 1917) was a Canadian-born mathematician. She studied at Dalhousie University, receiving her BA in 1891, and her MA in 1892. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1895; her dissertation was “On Abelian integrals, a resume of Neumann’s ‘Abelsche Integrele’ with comments and applications."
Contents
Academics
Baxter enrolled at Dalhousie University in 1887. Her primary courses of study were mathematics and mathematical physics. Despite the relative lack of female scholars in these areas, Baxter received her bachelor's degree in 1891. She received multiple awards at graduation, including the Sir William Young Medal for highest standing in mathematics and mathematical physics.
Baxter completed her master's degree at Dalhousie in 1892.
From 1892 to 1894, Baxter held a fellowship at Cornell University in New York. On the completion of her thesis, "On Abelian integrals, a resume of Neumann’s ‘Abelsche Integrele’ with comments and applications," she became the second Canadian woman and the fourth woman on the North American continent to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.
Non-Academic Life
Agnes Sime Baxter was born on March 18, 1870, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Baxter family had immigrated to Canada from Scotland. Her father, Robert Baxter, was manager of the Halifax Gas Light Company, having managed a Scottish electric light company before moving to Nova Scotia.
Agnes Baxter married Dr. Albert Ross Hill on August 20, 1896. The marriage produced two daughters. Mrs. Ross Hill chose not to teach at the institutions where her husband was a professor, although Albert credited her with assisting him in his work.
Agnes Ross Hill died on March 9, 1917, in Columbia, Missouri, after protracted illness.