1931-

American mathematician who is an authority on coding theory. Pless earned a Northwestern University doctorate, specializing in algebra. At the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory, Pless joined mathematicians who pioneered the exploration of error-correcting codes. She next conducted research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before becoming a professor in the University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science in 1975. Her writings include the book Introduction to the Theory of Error-Correcting Codes.