Lao Genevra Simons

Lao Genevra Simons (1870–1949) also referred to as Lao G. Simons, was an American mathematician, writer, and historian of mathematics known for her influential book Fabre and Mathematics and Other Essays. Simons was head of the mathematics department at Hunter College in New York.

Life Lao Genevra Simons was born on March 25, 1870, in San Jose, California. When Simons was six months old, her family moved east to New Jersey.

Upon retiring from Hunter College, Simons founded a $1000 scholarship for the university named after the mathematics honour society, Pi Mu Epsilon. A second graduate scholarship was created in her name, funded by friends, alumnae, and admirers, in the same year.

Simons died on November 25, 1949, in Greenwich, Connecticut, at age 79 of natural causes.

Simons earned a bachelor of science in 1908 from Columbia University; she attained a master’s degree and a Ph.D. also from Columbia in 1912 and 1924 respectively.

Career After obtaining her teaching certificate she taught at a preparatory school in Connecticut, then taught elementary school for a year in South Orange, New Jersey. Simons was also a member of the Council of The History of Science Society. As part of the Council, Simons was part of the committee on arrangements for the meeting and exhibition commemorating the bi-centenary of the death of Sir Isaac Newton.

Simons wrote articles about math history for Scripta Mathematica, The Mathematics Teacher, and the American Mathematical Monthly. Simons was an associate editor for Scripta Mathematica, and from 1932, the founding year of the journal, to 1949 she served as its Book Review Editor. “Algebra at Harvard College in 1730” (1925) in The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 63–70 Bibliography of Early American Textbooks on Algebra (1936) A summary and description of America algebra textbooks published through 1850 The only new essay published in Fabre and Mathematics was "The Interest of Alexander von Humboldt in Mathematics"