Helen Infeld

Helen Infeld (20 July 1907 – 6 July 1993) was a mathematics professor and one of the few women to earn a doctorate in mathematics in the United States before World War II. For her anti-fascist political views, which were viewed as pro-communist, she was forced to leave Canada with her family and move to Poland to escape the consequences of McCarthyism in North America.

Education Helen Schlauch attended high school in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and graduated in 1924. In New York City, she enrolled at Washington Square College of New York University completing her studies in 1928 with a mathematics major and English and psychology minors. At the college, she was president of the Pan Hellenic Council her junior year.

In May 1932, Helen married Leonard Palmer Adams, a doctoral student at Cornell. She had briefly changed her name to Helen Schlauch Adams when she applied for the Cornell PhD program. Helen and Leonard divorced in 1936 and had no children. ). His rhetoric caused some people to suggest that Leopold and Helen were Soviet spies. Published attacks against the couple caused them to become concerned for their family's safety so they decided to leave Canada.

Until 1982, Helen Infeld served as editor of Poland (A Monthly), the English-language version of a periodical devoted to cultural events in Poland. She died in Warsaw on July 6, 1993, at 85 and was buried in Powazki municipal cemetery.

Selected honors

Gold Cross of Merit (1954) The Chevalier Cross, Order of Polonia Restituta (1970)

Memberships According to Green, Helen Infeld was active in several organizations.

American Mathematical Society, (AMS) Mathematical Association of America, (MMA) Phi Beta Kappa Pi Mu Epsilon Polish-Icelandic Society