Gertrude Blanch

Gertrude Blanch was an American mathematician who did pioneering work in numerical analysis and computation. Born Gittel Kaimowitz in Kolno, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1897, she came to New York as a child, worked in clerical jobs for fourteen years while saving for school, and became an American citizen in 1921. She was a leader of the Mathematical Tables Project in New York from its beginning. She later worked as assistant director and leader of the Numerical Analysis group in the UCLA computing division and was head of mathematical research for the Aerospace Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. She received the Air Force Outstanding Performance Award in 1958 and Exceptional Service Award in 1963, was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1963, and received the Federal Woman's Award in 1964. She died in 1996.