The IMA offers its congratulations to Dr Isobel Falconer FIMA who was awarded an MBE for ‘services to the History of Mathematics and Science’.
Dr Isobel Falconer is a historian of mathematics and physics at the University of St Andrews. Her research focuses on the cultural context of maths and physics in the 19th century, including the mathematical opportunities women had through astronomy.
Isobel is leading a collaborative project with the University of Bonn on how we came to believe in a universal gravitational constant, and has contributed this issue’s Historical Notes on that topic.
IMA President, Professor Paul Glendinning said:
I was delighted to hear that Dr Isobel Falconer has been awarded an MBE for services to the History of Mathematics and Science. The History of Mathematics is increasingly important to our understanding of our discipline and its cultural context, and Dr Falconer has made important contributions both academically and in her support of others.
Isobel helps to ensure that the MacTutor website, developed by Edmund Robertson and John O’Connor, is sustainable and has encouraged coverage of non-Western mathematicians such as entries for 600 African men and women with PhDs in mathematics.
Dr Falconer curated much of the museum at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. She is the IMU representative on the International Commission for the History of Mathematics; a trustee of the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation; on the London Mathematical Society Library Committee, with particular responsibility for their Fawcett Collection; and the Meetings Co-ordinator for the Council of the British Society for the History of Mathematics and a member of their Accessibility and Diversity Working Group. She has also recently been on the organising committee for meetings on Women in Astronomy and Mathematics: Inclusive or Exclusive.
Dr Isobel Falconer said:
History adds a human face to mathematics, helping it seem less dauntingly abstract to the public. By uncovering the varied ways in which marginalised groups have contributed, we can challenge gender and ethnic stereotypes, encouraging mathematical talent wherever it lies. It is a privilege to support many colleagues in this work, and I’m delighted to receive an MBE for history of mathematics and science.
See Isobel’s website for more about her research.
Reproduced from Mathematics Today, August 2022
Download the article, Fellow Awarded MBE for History of Mathematics from MT August 22 (pdf)
