A distinguished mathematician, Grace Chisholm Young is recognized as being the first woman to officially receive a Ph.D. in any field from a German university. Working closely with her husband, mathematician William Henry Young, she produced a large body of published work that made contributions to both pure and applied mathematics.

Grace Emily Chisholm Young was born on March 15, 1868, in Haslemere, Surrey, England, to Anna Louisa Bell and Henry William Chisholm. Her father was a British career civil servant who (following his own father) rose through the ranks to become the chief of Britain's weights and measures. Grace Emily Chisholm was the youngest of three surviving children. Her brother, Hugh Chisholm, enjoyed a distinguished career as editor of the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

As befitted a girl of her social class, Young received an education at home. Forbidden by her mother to study medicine--which the...