ABSTRACT
Mina Spiegel Rees was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 2, 1902. She went to New York City public grammar schools, Hunter High School, and Hunter College, where she began studying mathematics. In 1923 she graduated summa cum laude, having been editor of the yearbook, president of the Student Council, and a member of Pi Mu Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa. She received an M.A. from Columbia University in 1925 and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1931, with a thesis written under the supervision of Leonard Eugene Dickson . She taught mathematics at Hunter College until 1943, when she was granted a leave of absence to serve as technical aide and executive assistant to the chief of the Applied Mathematics Panel, National Defense Research Committee, Offi ce of Scientifi c Research and Development. For this work she was honored by both the British government (King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom, 1948) and the U.S. government (President’s Certifi cate of Merit, 1948). After the war she was invited by the U.S. Navy to establish the mathematics research program in the newly created Offi ce of Naval Research. She served as head of the Mathematics Branch (1946 to 1949), director of the Mathematical Sciences Division (1949 to 1952), and deputy science director (1952 to 1953).
