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#OTD 1881 Hilda Hudson b (d 26 Nov 1965)🇬🇧 OBE. Best known to statisticians for developing the classic SIR model of epidemic infectious disease with Ronald Ross 1916-17 she also pioneered application of sophisticated mathematics to aeronautical engineering. 1/5 
2/ She was the first ever female invited speaker at International Congress of Mathematicians 1912 where she read a paper on curved surfaces. Semple called her “a distinguished mathematician of great erudition and integrity”.
3/ During WWI, she joined the Admiralty to head the Structural Analysis section. With Letitia Chitty (1897-1982) & Beatrice Cave-Browne-Cave (1874-1947) they revolutionised fixed-wing aircraft design. After the war, they wrote the classic Handbook of Strength Calculations.
4/Royle calls them “pioneers who demonstrated that it was possible for women to overcome the dogmatic, institutionalized prejudices of the time, and they earned the right to stand tall as credible applied mathematicians during the genesis of aircraft stress analysis”
5/ refs
Ross R 1916 Proc Royal Soc A 92; Ross R, Hudson H 1917. Proc Royal Soc A 93 (650): 212–225; Proc Royal Soc B 89(621):507
Royle T 2017. Historia Mathematica, 44(4): 342–366.
Barrow-Green J, Royle T 2022 doi.org/10.1007/978-3-…
Ross R 1916 Proc Royal Soc A 92; Ross R, Hudson H 1917. Proc Royal Soc A 93 (650): 212–225; Proc Royal Soc B 89(621):507
Royle T 2017. Historia Mathematica, 44(4): 342–366.
Barrow-Green J, Royle T 2022 doi.org/10.1007/978-3-…
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