Mina Rees, a noted mathematician and the first woman to head the American Association for the Advancement of Science died at age 95 on Saturday.
In addition to more than ten years of teaching at Hunter College, Rees served as a presidential appointee to the National Science Foundation board and was later elected president, was head of math and later deputy director of the science division at the Office of Naval Research, and was the first dean of graduate studies at the City University of New York, where she was also a founding president of the Graduate School and University Center.
Rees studied rocketry and fluid flow on submarines, in addition to pure algebra. She received the President’s Certificate of Merit and the British Medal for Service in Defense of Freedom.
