Anneli Cahn Lax
| Anneli Cahn Lax | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1922 (age 95) Katowice |
| Alma mater | Adelphi University, New York University |
| Occupation | Mathematician, Professor |
Anneli Cahn Lax (23 February 1922, Katowice – 24 September 1999, New York City) was an American mathematician, who was known for being an editor of the Mathematics Association of America's New Mathematical Library Series, and for her work in reforming mathematics education with the inclusion of language skills. Anneli Lax received a bachelor's degree in 1942 from Adelphi University and her doctorate in 1956. She taught at New York University as a mathematics professor. She was married to the mathematician, Peter Lax.
In 1942, she earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Adelphi University in Long Island. In 1956, she earned a PhD from New York University with the dissertation Cauchy's Problem for a Partial Differential Equation with Real Multiple Characteristics with thesis adviser Richard Courant.
She became a mathematics professor at NYU and was the editor of the Mathematics Association of America's New Mathematical Library Series.
In 1961, the series started, with 36 published volumes by 1995. It was planned, by Professor Lax and others, to make mathematics accessible to the average reader while still being technically accurate. The first two books were, Numbers: Rational and Irrational by Ivan Niven and What Is Calculus About? by W. W. Sawyer.
In 1977, she won the George Pólya Award for her article: Linear Algebra, A Potent Tool, Vol. 7 (1976), 3–15.
In 1980, the mathematics department of New York University assigned Lax to design a remedial course in mathematics for freshmen. The course she devised and called "Mathematical Thinking" presented mathematics not as a body of facts but as a set of problems to be analyzed and resolved.
"There is a misconception among people and schoolchildren about the nature of mathematics," she said, in a 1979 interview. "They consider it a matter of rules and regulations instead of thinking." The pressure, she said, was for pupils to come up with the right answer quickly, without time to analyze.
She teamed up with John Devine, working with teachers in inner-city New York schools. Together they got funding from the Ford Foundation to train teachers from these schools in the methods Lax had pioneered at New York University.
Though she was involved with reforming mathematics education for high school and college students in New York, she didn’t like panel discussions at conferences. Especially when she was meant to reply immediately to preceding remarks by fellow panelists. Anneli said she was a slow listener and reader. She believed her responses were “not ready for public consumption when my turn comes.”
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