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Talk:Josephine M. Mitchell: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:21, 17 February 2024

A fact from Josephine M. Mitchell appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 May 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that when mathematician Josephine M. Mitchell married another University of Illinois faculty member, the university revoked her tenured position so her husband could keep his untenured one? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/May. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Josephine M. Mitchell.

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The result was: promotedbySL93 (talk) 01:40, 8 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• ... that when mathematician Josephine M. Mitchell married another University of Illinois faculty member, the university revoked her tenured position so her husband could keep his untenured one? Source: "You are strongly encouraged to quote the source text supporting each hook" (and [link] the source, or cite it briefly without using citation templates)

• Reviewed: Smithe Redwoods State Natural Reserve

Created by David Eppstein (talk). Self-nominated at 16:56, 20 April 2021 (UTC).[reply]

Hook eligibility:

• Cited:
• Interesting:
• Other problems:

The sentence "When a flood destroyed the mathematics library of Charles University in Prague, she and her husband donated their own extensive library to replace it." may be incorrect, as the flooding referred to is presumably the more severe 2002 European floods#Czech Republic of August 2002, rather than the 1997 Central European flood. As Mitchell died on December 28, 2000, and her husband on February 6, 2002, the donation may have been made on their behalf posthumously, rather than directly by Mitchell and her husband. The actual text of the ref cited (from 2003) is ambiguous: "In one special way, they have already provided unusual support for mathematics: Their rather magnificent collection of books and journals was sent to Charles University in the Czech Republic, where recent floods had destroyed the entire library." (my emphasis) Bahudhara (talk) 06:25, 10 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly the same thought (and conclusion) occurred to me, on checking the source. My interpretation, and it is no more than that, is that the American Mathematical Society made the decision to transfer property donated to it. But in any case, the words appearing in the article are not adequately supported by the source. We might well suppose that they would have thought it an appropriate use of their library, although "replace" is likely to also be too strong an assertion. --PaulBetteridge (talk) 09:05, 10 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Please go ahead and correct that part to a more accurate description of what happened. —David Eppstein (talk) 16:10, 10 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

An appropriate change was made by another editor --PaulBetteridge (talk) 22:03, 10 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The article currently lists Mitchell’s Ph.D advisor as Hilda Geiringer, citing the Mathematics Genealogy Project. Several other sources, though, give her advisor as Anna Pell Wheeler (sources: Institute for Advanced Study; AMS). Anybody have a way to verify? —Delirium (talk) 19:10, 10 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]