Brief Penn Math History Time Line

November 13, 1749 - Trustees constituted for the Academy and Charitable School

1750 - First location is at Fourth & Arch

December 17, 1750 - Mr. Theophilus Grew appointed first Master in Mathematics

July 13, 1753 - Trustees receive Charter for the Academy

June 10, 1755 - Trustees receive Charter for the College which can grant degrees

July 11, 1755 - Theophilus Grew appointed Mathematical Professor in the College

1761 - The Rev. Hugh Williamson appointed Professor of Mathematics (later delegate to Constitutional Convention and member of first Congress)

1773 - James Cannon appointed the Professor of Mathematics

1782 - Robert Patterson appointed the Professor of Mathematics

1802 - University moves to Ninth Street

1814 - Robert Maskell Patterson (son of Robert Patterson) appointed the Professor of Mathematics

1827 - Robert Adrain appointed the Professor of Mathematics

1834 - Edward Henry Courtenay appointed the Professor of Mathematics

Spring 1834 - Many Faculty meetings devoted to discipline problems

1836 - Henry Vethake appointed the Professor of Mathematics

1855 - Ezra Otis Kendall appointed the Professor of Mathematics

1872 - University moves to West Philadelphia - Department located in new College Hall

March, 1881 - Trustees approve creation of Ph.D.

March 18, 1881 - Thomas A. Scott letter to Trustees regarding chair in mathematics

June 7, 1881 - Thomas A. Scott Professorship established - Ezra Otis Kendall appointed to the Scott Chair

November 1882 - First faculty appointed to the Faculty of Philosophy

December 8, 1882 - First meeting of the Faculty of Philosophy - regarded as the beginning of the Graduate School

1892 - Edwin S. Crawley receives first Penn Ph.D. in Mathematics

1892 - Class of 1880 endows freshman prize exam in mathematics - First prize $50 (tuition $160 at the time)

December 3, 1895 - Professor Doolittle appointed Professor of Mathematics and Flower Professor of Astronomy

1896 - Ezra Otis Kendal retires but retains Scott chair

January 10, 1899 - Death of Ezra Otis Kendall

1899 - Professor Crawley appointed to the Scott Chair - Professor Doolittle drops the title of Professor of Mathematics - Mathematics now independent of other disciplines. This is the beginning of The Department of Mathematics at Penn.

1901 - Roxana Hayward Vivian is first woman Ph.D. in Mathematics at Penn

1914 - Major Subjects, including Mathematics, were introduced in the College's "New Curriculum."

1928 - Dudley Weldon Woodard is first black mathematician to receive a Ph.D. at Penn - second in the U.S.

1933 - William Claytor is second black mathematician to receive a Ph.D. at Penn - third in the U.S.

1933 - George Hervey Hallett becomes the third holder of the Scott Chair

1934 - Hans A. Rademacher emigrates to US and joins Penn's faculty

1941 - John Robert Kline appointed to the Scott Chair

1954 - Department moves from College Hall to the David Rittenhouse Laboratory

1956 - Hans Adolph Rademacher appointed to the Scott Chair

1958 - 100 th Ph.D. in Mathematics

1962 - Oscar Goldman appointed Department Chair by Provost David Goddard

1964 - Richard V. Kadison appointed to the Kuemmerle Chair

1967 - Eugenio Calabi appointed to the Scott Chair

1973 - 200 th Ph.D. in Mathematics

1978 - Rademacher Lecture Series begins with S.S. Chern, M. Schutzenberger, I.M. Singer, and John T. Tate

1985 - Penn initiates East Regional Geometry Festival

1988 - Julius Shaneson appointed to first Francis J. Carey Term Chair in Mathematics

December 1988 - Penn hosts first major US-USSR mathematics conference in modern times

1988 - Marcelo Llarull appointed first Rademacher Instructor

1991 - Eugenio Calabi awarded AMS Steele Prize for fundamental work on differential geometry

1994 - Shmuel Weinberger appointed to the Scott Chair

1994 - Fan Chung appointed to the Class of 1965 Term Chair

1996 - 300 th Ph.D. in Mathematics

1995 - Julius Shaneson appointed to the Class of 1939 Professorship

1995 - Dennis DeTurck appointed to the Davidson Kennedy Professorship in the College

1995 - David Harbater appointed to the Robert I. Williams Term Chair

1995 - David Harbater awarded AMS Cole Prize for solution of Abhyankar's Conjecture

1996 - Herbert Wilf receives MAA's Haimo Award

1996 - David Harbater appointed to the E. Otis Kendall Professorship

1997 - Alexandre Kirillov appointed to a Francis J. Carey Term Chair

1998 - Herbert Wilf appointed to the Scott Chair

1998 - Herbert Wilf awarded AMS Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research

1998 - Percy Deift awarded SIAM's Pólya Prize

1999 - Richard V. Kadison awarded AMS Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement

1999 - Jerry Kazdan receives MAA's Lester R. Ford Award

2000 - Percy Deift appointed to a Francis J. Carey Term Chair

2002 - Dennis DeTurck receives MAA's Haimo Award

2002 - Charles Epstein and Wolfgang Ziller appointed to Francis J. Carey Term Chairs