Anne Lester Hudson
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Anne Lester Hudson (January 30, 1932 - January 02, 2025) was an American mathematician and mathematics educator. Her research specialty was the theory of topological semigroups; she was also known for her skill at mathematical problem-solving, and has coached students to success in both the International Mathematical Olympiad and the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.[1] She is a professor emeritus at the Georgia Southern University-Armstrong Campus (formerly Armstrong State College).[2]
Born as Anne Lester,[3] Hudson was originally from Mississippi,[4] and grew up in Inverness, Mississippi, a town so small that there were only seven students in her high school class.[1] She did her undergraduate studies at Hollins College, with Herta Freitag as a mentor. Unusually for the time, she continued at Hollins for four years, instead of transferring after two years to another university, in order to continue working with Freitag.[1] She graduated in 1953.[3]
In 1961, she earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from Tulane University, where she also met her husband, mathematician Sigmund Hudson.[1] Her dissertation, On the Structure of Certain Classes of Topological Semigroups, was supervised by Paul Stallings Mostert.[5] She became the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Tulane.[1]
