Holidays and History

Brittany ShieldsThe annual Holiday Lecture was given in December by Brittany Shields (GSAS ’08), presenting “The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences: A Historical Perspective, 1934-1972”. At the time of the lecture a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, Ms. Shields has written and presented extensively about the Courant Institute and Mathematics at NYU, including her master’s thesis: “A Sociological and Historical Study of the Early Development of New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences”. She spoke more recently on Richard Courant and NYU’s mathematics enterprise during World War II at the American Mathematical Society Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting on March 8 in Washington, DC.