Birthday profile

Mina Rees

Mina Rees, American mathematician (died 1997)

Born
August 2, 1902
Died
October 25, 1997
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1902

About Mina Rees

Mina Spiegel Rees was an American mathematician. She is known for her assistance to the US Government during WWII, as well as making several breakthroughs for women in science. Her most notable accomplishments include becoming the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971) and head of the mathematics department of the Office of Naval Research of the US. Rees was a pioneer in the history of computing and helped establish funding streams and institutional infrastructure for research. She also helped other women succeed in mathematics with her involvement in the Association for Women in Mathematics as well as her life-long career as a professor at Hunter College. During her first three years as a professor, she created several book reviews which were published in Scripta Mathematica. After receiving her degree from Colombia University, Rees became an assistant professor at Hunter College in 1925, taking a leave of absence from 1929-1932 to get her PHD from the University of Chicago.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Mina Rees was born

Mina Rees was born in 1902. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1902

  • Best-selling bookThe Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Rose Bowl game played in Pasadena, California
  • Top headlineEnd of Philippine-American War
  • Technology milestoneAir conditioning invented by Willis Carrier
  • Notable inventionAir conditioning
  • World population~1.62B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderTheodore Roosevelt
  • U.S. population79.0M

1902 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Mina Rees's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19022026
Population79.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.