Hilda Phoebe Hudson

Hilda Phoebe Hudson
Hilda Phoebe Hudson
Born	11 June 1881 Cambridge
Died	26 November 1965 Chiswick
Nationality	British
Education	Camdridge, Bryn Mawr and Dublin
Occupation	mathematician
Known for	Cremona transformation
Parent(s)	Professor William Henry Hoare Hudson

Hilda Phoebe Hudson (June 11, 1881 Cambridge – November 26, 1965 London) was an English mathematician who worked on algebraic geometry, in particular on Cremona transformations. Hudson was interested in the link between mathematics and her religious beliefs.

Hudson was born in Cambridge where her father, William Henry Hoare Hudson, was a fellow. Her mother was Mary (born Turnball) and she died when Hudson and her three siblings were young. Her father took on the parenting role and she published a simplified Euclidean proof aged ten in the journal Nature.

Hudson gained a scholarship and entered Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, after a year studying at the University of Berlin she returned to Newnham as lecturer in mathematics and later Associate Research Fellow. She was also awarded MA and ScD degrees by Trinity College, Dublin. Most of Hudson's research was in the area of pure mathematics concerned with surfaces and plane curves, her special interest was in cremona transformation. Her monograph Ruler and Compasses was well-received as "a welcome addition to the literature on the boundary between elementary and advanced mathematics". In 1917 she joined an Air Ministry subdivision undertaking aeronautical engineering research, where she applied pioneering work on the application of mathematical modelling to aircraft design for which she was appointed OBE in 1919. As a distinguished mathematician she was one of the few women of her time to serve on the council of the London Mathematical Society.