Pauline Sperry Undergraduate Lectures

In celebration of the anniversary of the addition of the first woman to become an associate professor in the Berkeley Math Department and her incredible devotion to the math community at Berkeley

108th Anniversary Talk

Professor Christina Goldschmidt (Department of Statistics, University of Oxford)
April 10th
Professor of Probability, University of Oxford

Many of the limit theorems that we prove in probability theory are scaling limits: that is, we have some sequence of random variables \(X_n, n=0,1,2,\ldots\), we rescale the \(n\)th element of the sequence by some constant \(a_n\) and get convergence in distribution as \(n\) tends to infinity. The prototypical example is the central limit theorem, in which we take \(X_n\) to be the sum of \(n\) independent and identically distributed random variables with mean 0 and finite variance 1 and get convergence in distribution on rescaling by \(1/sqrt(n)\) to a standard normal distribution. I will talk about how we can extend this notion to more general random objects, and the talk about how we use it in the study of random trees.

Biography of Christina Goldschmidt

Christina Goldschmidt is a mathematician and researcher specializing in probability theory and combinatorics. Her work focuses on random graphs, random walks, and the intersection of these topics with other areas of mathematics.

She is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, and her work often involves exploring probabilistic models with applications to computer science and discrete mathematics. Goldschmidt's contributions to random graph theory include work on the structure of large graphs and networks.

Goldschmidt's research is influential in both theoretical mathematics and applied fields such as network theory, statistical physics, and the study of algorithms.

In addition to her research, Christina Goldschmidt is passionate about promoting mathematics and fostering diversity in the field. She is involved in various initiatives aimed at mentoring and supporting underrepresented groups in mathematics, particularly women and minority groups.

Biography of Pauline Sperry

The year 2017 marked the centennial of the addition of the first woman to become an associate professor in the Berkeley Math Department – Pauline Sperry. Born in 1885 in Massachusetts, she studied math and music at Smith College, where she later returned for graduate work and teaching mathematics. She continued her graduate studies at the University of Chicago, where she completed her dissertation in projective differential geometry and in 1916 was awarded a doctorate. Then in 1917, she joined UC Berkeley as an instructor, promoted to assistant professor in 1923 and eventually to associate professor in 1932, both demonstrating her brilliance in advanced mathematics as the first woman to achieve those positions in Berkeley. By 1950, she had advised five Ph.D. candidates, published a bibliography and two textbooks, and mentored many women in her decades of service to the Berkeley Math Department.

Sperry’s distinguished career came to a premature end in 1950 when she was dismissed for refusing to sign an oath of loyalty at the height of the anti-communist era. She believed as a matter of principle that the oath would encroach on political freedom. After 2 years, the court ruled in her and other nonsigners favor, but as she was already passed the retirement age, she was reinstated as associate professor emerita. Later, the University President Robert G. Sproul praised her “exceptional ability as a teacher in a subject in which the quality of teaching can be responsible in large measure for the difference between brilliance and mediocrity in a student's work.”

After retiring from teaching, Sperry dedicated her time to promote human rights through involvement in the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, and the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. A remarkable philanthropist, she also gave to help those in need, claiming that to be happy, one should be “bold enough to ask the right questions, and brave enough to face the answers about the untouchable subject, money. ... Give 'till it hurts!”.

It is in honor of Professor Sperry’s decades of devotion to teaching, excellence in mathematics, social activism, and her remarkable generosity and spirit that we started this lecture series. Our hope is that her example can serve as a role model for all students of mathematics.

You can find a link to (some of) our previous years' lectures here