Brief Penn Math History Time Line
November 13, 1749 - Trustees constituted for the Academy and Charitable School
1750 - First location is at Fourth & Arch
December 17, 1750 - Mr. Theophilus Grew appointed first Master in Mathematics
July 13, 1753 - Trustees receive Charter for the Academy
June 10, 1755 - Trustees receive Charter for the College which can grant degrees
July 11, 1755 - Theophilus Grew appointed Mathematical Professor in the College
1761 - The Rev. Hugh Williamson appointed Professor of Mathematics (later delegate to Constitutional Convention and member of first Congress)
1773 - James Cannon appointed the Professor of Mathematics
1782 - Robert Patterson appointed the Professor of Mathematics
1802 - University moves to Ninth Street
1814 - Robert Maskell Patterson (son of Robert Patterson) appointed the Professor of Mathematics
1827 - Robert Adrain appointed the Professor of Mathematics
1834 - Edward Henry Courtenay appointed the Professor of Mathematics
Spring 1834 - Many Faculty meetings devoted to discipline problems
1836 - Henry Vethake appointed the Professor of Mathematics
1855 - Ezra Otis Kendall appointed the Professor of Mathematics
1872 - University moves to West Philadelphia - Department located in new College Hall
March, 1881 - Trustees approve creation of Ph.D.
March 18, 1881 - Thomas A. Scott letter to Trustees regarding chair in mathematics
June 7, 1881 - Thomas A. Scott Professorship established - Ezra Otis Kendall appointed to the Scott Chair
November 1882 - First faculty appointed to the Faculty of Philosophy
December 8, 1882 - First meeting of the Faculty of Philosophy - regarded as the beginning of the Graduate School
1892 - Edwin S. Crawley receives first Penn Ph.D. in Mathematics
1892 - Class of 1880 endows freshman prize exam in mathematics - First prize $50 (tuition $160 at the time)
December 3, 1895 - Professor Doolittle appointed Professor of Mathematics and Flower Professor of Astronomy
1896 - Ezra Otis Kendal retires but retains Scott chair
January 10, 1899 - Death of Ezra Otis Kendall
1899 - Professor Crawley appointed to the Scott Chair - Professor Doolittle drops the title of Professor of Mathematics - Mathematics now independent of other disciplines. This is the beginning of The Department of Mathematics at Penn.
1901 - Roxana Hayward Vivian is first woman Ph.D. in Mathematics at Penn
1914 - Major Subjects, including Mathematics, were introduced in the College's "New Curriculum."
1928 - Dudley Weldon Woodard is first black mathematician to receive a Ph.D. at Penn - second in the U.S.
1933 - William Claytor is second black mathematician to receive a Ph.D. at Penn - third in the U.S.
1933 - George Hervey Hallett becomes the third holder of the Scott Chair
1934 - Hans A. Rademacher emigrates to US and joins Penn's faculty
1941 - John Robert Kline appointed to the Scott Chair
1954 - Department moves from College Hall to the David Rittenhouse Laboratory
1956 - Hans Adolph Rademacher appointed to the Scott Chair
1958 - 100 th Ph.D. in Mathematics
1962 - Oscar Goldman appointed Department Chair by Provost David Goddard
1964 - Richard V. Kadison appointed to the Kuemmerle Chair
1967 - Eugenio Calabi appointed to the Scott Chair
1973 - 200 th Ph.D. in Mathematics
1978 - Rademacher Lecture Series begins with S.S. Chern, M. Schutzenberger, I.M. Singer, and John T. Tate
1985 - Penn initiates East Regional Geometry Festival
1988 - Julius Shaneson appointed to first Francis J. Carey Term Chair in Mathematics
December 1988 - Penn hosts first major US-USSR mathematics conference in modern times
1988 - Marcelo Llarull appointed first Rademacher Instructor
1991 - Eugenio Calabi awarded AMS Steele Prize for fundamental work on differential geometry
1994 - Shmuel Weinberger appointed to the Scott Chair
1994 - Fan Chung appointed to the Class of 1965 Term Chair
1996 - 300 th Ph.D. in Mathematics
1995 - Julius Shaneson appointed to the Class of 1939 Professorship
1995 - Dennis DeTurck appointed to the Davidson Kennedy Professorship in the College
1995 - David Harbater appointed to the Robert I. Williams Term Chair
1995 - David Harbater awarded AMS Cole Prize for solution of Abhyankar's Conjecture
1996 - Herbert Wilf receives MAA's Haimo Award
1996 - David Harbater appointed to the E. Otis Kendall Professorship
1997 - Alexandre Kirillov appointed to a Francis J. Carey Term Chair
1998 - Herbert Wilf appointed to the Scott Chair
1998 - Herbert Wilf awarded AMS Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research
1998 - Percy Deift awarded SIAM's Pólya Prize
1999 - Richard V. Kadison awarded AMS Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement
1999 - Jerry Kazdan receives MAA's Lester R. Ford Award
2000 - Percy Deift appointed to a Francis J. Carey Term Chair
2002 - Dennis DeTurck receives MAA's Haimo Award
2002 - Charles Epstein and Wolfgang Ziller appointed to Francis J. Carey Term Chairs