Three Former NIST Mathematicians Honored
September 2002
  
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John Todd (left), Olga Taussky-Todd (center), and Burton H. Colvin (right)
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Three former NIST mathematicians were honored recently with the installation
of their portraits in
the NIST Gallery of Distinguished Scientists,
Engineers and Administrators on the NIST campus in
Gaithersburg, Maryland in ceremonies on September 5, 2002.
The honorees were Burton H. Colvin, Olga Taussky-Todd, and John Todd.
Burt H. Colvin was recognized for his outstanding management of the applied
mathematics program at NBS.
Colvin was born in 1916 in West Warwick, RI, and studied mathematics at
Brown University and at the University of
Wisconsin, where he received a Ph.D. in 1943.
He spent 21 years at Boeing, heading its the Mathematics and Information
Sciences Research Laboratories from 1959-1972.
He then came to NIST (then the National Bureau of Standards)
to head its Applied Mathematics Division.
In 1978 Colvin was named head of the NBS Center for Applied Mathematics,
a position he held until 1986.
During his tenure, Colvin raised the level of theoretical modeling at NBS
by fostering collaborations between applied mathematicians and other NBS
technical units.
During his career, Colvin held many distinguished appointments,
including President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
(1971-72), Chair of the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences (1975-76),
and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He was recipient of the Department of Commerce Silver (1978) and Gold (1981)
medals for "consistently outstanding management of the applied mathematics
program" at NBS, and he received a Presidential Meritorious Rank Award in 1980.
Colvin headed the NIST Office of Academic Affairs from 1986 until his retirement
in 1991.
He passed away on August 24, 2001 in Gaithersburg, MD.
 
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Photos from the portrait unveiling at NIST. On the left is Ron Boisvert (Chief of the
NIST Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division), Mary Gottlieb (friend of the Colvin
family), and Dan Colvin (son of Burt Colvin). On the right is
John Todd and Fern Hunt (NIST mathematician).
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John Todd was recognized for his research and leadership at NBS during the
formative years of scientific computing. Born in Northern Ireland in 1911, Todd studied
mathematics at Queen's University (Belfast) and at Cambridge.
During World War Two he served in the Admiralty Department of Scientific
Research and Experiment, where he was responsible for the Admiralty Computing
Service. In 1947 Todd joined NBS, working closely with
John Curtiss to establish the new National Applied Mathematics Laboratory
(NAML, later known as the Applied Mathematics Division).
NAML included the Institute for Numerical Analysis, which was housed at UCLA.
In 1949, Todd became Chief of the NAML's Computation Laboratory in Washington.
The Computation Laboratory co-developed (with the NBS Electronics Division) and operated the
Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC). Dedicated in 1950, SEAC was the first
operational stored-program electronic digital computers in the United States. Todd assembled a
capable group of researchers, and both led and participated actively in research on mathematical
methods for exploiting the new computational power that was at hand. He studied methods for
evaluating mathematical functions, generating random numbers (for Monte Carlo calculations),
conformal mappings, and computations with matrices. He worked on the construction of
mathematical tables. During this period, NBS became the leading center for a newly emerging
field of legitimate mathematical research: numerical analysis.
In 1954, Todd became Chief of the Numerical Analysis Section of the Applied Mathematics
Division, a position he held until 1957. While at NBS, Todd became increasingly aware of the
need to train researchers in the emerging field of numerical analysis. In 1957 he decided to
dedicate himself full-time to this endeavor by taking a position as Professor of Mathematics at
the California Institute of Technology.
Today John Todd is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at CalTech, and
in May 2001 a conference was held there to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Olga Taussky-Todd was recognized for her contributions to the NBS applied
mathematics program in the areas of algebra, number theory, and matrix theory
during her tenure there from 1947-57.
Born in 1906, Olga Taussky was raised in Austria and received her doctorate in mathematics
from the University of Vienna, later working with David Hilbert in Gottingen.
In 1934 she moved to England, where she held several academic positions.
She later applied her mathematical skills working for the British Ministry of
Aircraft Production on such problems as the stability of aircraft designs.
In 1938, while both were working at the University of London, Olga Taussky and John Todd
married. Their collaboration, which lasted more than 57 years, was extraordinarily fruitful.
In 1947, Taussky-Todd became a full-time consultant to the NBS NAML.
Stimulated by the computer revolution, researchers such as Taussky-Todd began to establish
matrix theory as a new field of study.
Taussky-Todd's wide knowledge of mathematics and mathematicians is credited with playing an
important part in the development of the NBS Institute for Numerical Analysis.
Many researchers in linear algebra and applications were invited to
NBS as staff or as visitors, making NBS the leading center for work in this area.
Today, linear algebra and matrix theory are as a necessary tool for all scientists.
Taussky-Todd also developed novel techniques for solving mathematical problems on the newly emerging computers.
She left NBS in 1957 to join the faculty of the California Institute of Technology.
There she was recognized by students and colleagues as one of Caltech's most gifted teachers
and stimulating intellects. She was the first woman at CalTech to attain the academic rank
of full professor.
Selected by the L.A. Times in 1963 as "Woman of the Year", Taussky-Todd was hailed as one of
the foremost mathematicians of her generation.
She passed away in 1995 in Pasadena.
The NIST Gallery of Distinguished Scientists, Engineers and Administrators
is located in the Administration Building on the NIST campus in Gaithersburg,
MD. The galley is sponsored by the NIST Alumni Association.
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