Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder

Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder was one of the earliest recipients of a PhD in Mathematics granted by the University of Wisconsin. Her PhD class in 1930 consisted of three people and they were the 18th, 19th, and 20th Wisconsin Mathematics PhDs. At the Wisconsin Mathematics PhD Centennial Celebration held in 1997, Dr. Hirschfelder was the earliest Wisconsin Mathematics PhD present; at that time, she held her PhD for 67 years. Dr. Hirschfelder taught mathematics at the University of Wisconsin for almost 20 years and was the co-author of the important textbook "Higher Mathematics for Engineers and Physicists" published in 1934. In 1997 she endowed the Elizabeth S. Hirschfelder Fund for Graduate Women in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics at the UW-Foundation. She died in 2002 at the age of 100.