GREAT WOMAN OF MATHEMATICS: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, 1820-1910. Best known as a nurse who helped take the role of nurse from cultural caretaker to medical professional, Florence Nightingale was also a mathematical trailblazer. Her parents had objected to her becoming a nurse, 1/8

which held low social status at the time, but her diligence as a student was clear early in life--she was fluent in English, French, German, and Italian; and competent in Latin and classical Greek. She was directly responsible for many changes in hospital care during the 2/8

Crimean War, in which she had 38 nurses under her supervision. She documented the improvement in mortality rates and health outcomes caused by standardizing sanitation practices, among many other important changes that professionalized nursing. Nightingale did more than just 3/8

invent descriptive statistics. She made statistics accessible to wide audiences by furthering mathematically sound methods of data visualization and presentation--and made them beautiful, too! She was an author, writing "Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not," a book that 4/8

would become a standard text for nurse training. She was one of many great women of mathematics whose contributions were overlooked in eras when women's opportunities were limited by both laws and customs, but her importance to the field of statistical mathematics was huge. 5/8

Her influence as trailblazer in the practice of collecting hard data and using statistics to analyze and document medical outcomes was a game-changer in the cause of evidence-based medicine. Her influence as both a mathematician and practitioner of professional, personable, 6/8

compassionate, hygiene-focused, evidence-based medicine continues to resonate today. Among other honors, she was the first woman inducted into the Order of Merit, and the first woman to become a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. She was also made an honorary member 7/8

of the American Statistical Association. A special treat for those who read this bio all the way through: here is a YouTube recording of her actual voice!