- NORTH AMERICA 69
Abraham Robinson. Among the mathematicians that the turbulent twentieth cen-
tury condemned to wander the world was Abraham Robinson (1918-1974). He was
born in what was then Germany and is now Poland, but emigrated with his family
to Jerusalem in 1933, when the Nazis came to power in Germany. In 1940 he was
studying in Paris, but evacuated to London when Paris fell to the Nazi invasion.
After obtaining the Ph. D. and teaching in Britain for a few years, he spent six of
his most productive years at the University of Toronto, beginning in 1951. While
there he produced several Ph.D. students in mathematical logic. He left Toronto
in 1957 to return to Jerusalem, but eventually moved to California and finally to
Yale. The story of his Toronto years can be found in the article by Dauben (1996).
Cathleen Morawetz. Cathleen Synge Morawetz (b. 1923 in Toronto) is the daughter
of John Synge. She attended the University of Toronto during World War II and
then obtained the master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
1946. For a dissertation in mathematical physics she received the doctoral degree
at New York University in 1951. Her subsequent career was very distinguished.
She became associate director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in
1978. In 1995-1996 she was president of the American Mathematical Society, the
second woman to hold this post. In 1998 she was awarded the National Medal of
Science, the highest scientific honor bestowed by the United States.
5.3. Mexico. The area that is now Mexico was the first part of the North Amer-
ican mainland to be colonized by Europeans and was the site of the first university
in North America, the Universidad Real y Pontificia de Mexico, founded in 1551.
Unfortunately, the history of mathematics in modern Mexico has not been thor-
oughly studied, despite the fact that the mathematics of the earlier rulers of this
part of the world, the Aztecs and Maya, has received quite a bit of scholarly atten-
tion. The present discussion amounts to a summary of the article by A. Garciadiego
(2002), in which the author remarks that "the professionalization of the history of
mathematics in Mexico is comparatively recent."
The Royal University opened its doors just two years after its founding, offering
a curriculum that was essentially medieval, consisting of theology, law, and related
subjects. The first technical and scientific studies came more than a century later,
with the establishment of a chair of astrology and mathematics. Unfortunately,
some important scientific works were on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and
Catholics were forbidden to read them.^11 Among these books were the works of
Galileo and Newton, so that no real progress in science was to be expected.
Mexico became an independent country in 1821. An attempt by the French
Emperor Louis Napoleon to make Mexico part of a renewed French Empire by
establishing the puppet emperor Maximilian in 1864 soon failed. The French army
left, and Maximilian was executed in 1867. The new leaders of Mexico sought
to establish intellectual freedom that would incorporate material progress based
on science. Despite these intentions, the University was closed at various times
for political reasons. The National University of Mexico opened in 1910 and was
accompanied by preparatory schools and schools for advanced studies. The most
prominent name in the advance of mathematics and science in Mexico was Sotero
Prieto (1884-1935), who taught advanced mathematics and physics and advocated
(^11) It is interesting that astrology, belief in which is listed as a sin in the Catholic catechism, was
not only permitted, but actually encouraged. The Index was not officially abolished until 1966,
long after it had ceased to be taken seriously by either the faithful or the clergy.