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Jean Pedersen

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Jean J. Pedersen

Jean J. Pedersen (Sep 17, 1934–Jan 1, 2016)[1][2] was an American mathematician and author particularly known for her works on the mathematics of paper folding.

Education and career

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Pedersen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the daughter of an ophthalmologist and a teacher. She studied home economics changing to a double major in mathematics and physics as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, before becoming a graduate student in mathematics at the University of Utah under the supervision of E. Allen Davis.[2]

After completing her master's degree, she moved to San Jose, California, following her husband who worked for IBM. She joined the faculty at the Santa Clara University on a part-time basis in 1966, but shifted to full-time and was promoted to full professor in 1996. She was the first woman to teach mathematics at the university, and the first to be tenured as a mathematics professor.[2]

Her discovery that the platonic solids could be braided from strips of paper led to Martin Gardner writing about it in the September, 1971 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.[3]

Books

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Pedersen's books include:

  • Geometric Playthings (With Kent Pedersen, Dale Seymour Publications Secondary, 1973, ISBN 978-0866513517)
  • Fear No More: An Adult Approach to Mathematics (with Peter Hilton, Dale Seymour Publications, 1982 ISBN 978-0201057133)
  • Build Your Own Polyhedra (with Peter Hilton, Addison-Wesley, 1988)[4]
  • Mathematical Reflections: In a Room with Many Windows (with Peter Hilton and Derek Holton, Springer, 1996)[5][6]
  • Mathematical Vistas: From a Room with Many Windows (with Peter Hilton and Derek Holton, Springerl 2002)[5][7]
  • 99 Points of Intersection: Examples—Pictures—Proofs (by Hans Walser, translated with Peter Hilton, Mathematical Association of America, 2006)[8]
  • A Mathematical Tapestry: Demonstrating the Beautiful Unity of Mathematics (with Peter Hilton, illustrated by Sylvie Donmoyer, Cambridge University Press, 2010)[9]

She and Peter Hilton also translated The Golden Section and Symmetry by Hans Walser from German into English. Both translations were published by the Mathematical Association of America in 2001.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "Jean Pedersen (1934–2016)", News, Events & Announcements, American Mathematical Society, February 5, 2016
  2. ^ a b c "Jean Pedersen", Santa Clara Magazine, June 6, 2016, retrieved 2018-10-29
  3. ^ "Plaited Platonic Puzzles" by Jean J. Pedersen, The Two-Year College Mathematics Journal, vol. 4, no. 3, 1973, pp 22-37
  4. ^ Reviews of Build Your Own Polyhedra:
    • Schmidt, Don (February 1989), The Mathematics Teacher, 82 (2): 145, JSTOR 27966155{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Leiva, Miriam A. (April 1989), The Arithmetic Teacher, 36 (8): 58–59, JSTOR 41193678{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Jacob, Wiliam (October 1994), The Mathematics Teacher, 87 (7): 572, JSTOR 27969009{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Provost, Mary D. (September–October 1995), Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 1 (6): 497–498, JSTOR 41181482{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  5. ^ a b Review of Mathematical Reflections and Mathematical Vistas:
  6. ^ Review of Mathematical Reflections:
  7. ^ Reviews of Mathematical Vistas:
  8. ^ Reviews of 99 Points of Intersection:
  9. ^ Reviews of A Mathematical Tapestry:
  10. ^ Review of The Golden Section and Symmetry:
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