Schafer, Alice Turner, 1915-2009

Professor of mathematics Alice Turner Schafer attended the University of Richmond (B.A. 1936), and the University of Chicago (S.M. 1940, Ph.D. 1942). She married mathematician Richard Donald Schafer in 1942 and had two sons. Schafer taught mathematics at a number of colleges and universities before joining the faculty at Wellesley College in 1962. Known for her efforts to encourage girls and women to learn mathematics, Schafer was part of the women's caucus that formed the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1971. She served as its second president. She led the Delegation of Women Mathematicians to China (1992) and was United States leader of the US/China Joint Conference on Women in Science in Beijing, China (1995). Schafer was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1985, and the Alice T. Schafer Mathematics Prize was established in her honor by the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1989. In 1988 she was awarded the Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Ha Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics by the Mathematics Association of America.