Thanks to Ahmed Umer Ashraf from Pakistan, who emailed suggestions about two women in mathematics that were active in their 60s. He says he learned about Dr. Sved. from reading her papers.
Marta Sved with Keith Hamann at an Australian Mathematics Trust
function in Adelaide on Thursday 10 June 1999.
There’s a scholarship named after her at the University of Adelaide in Australia. I also found a review of her book, Journey into Geometries (1997) by Vijay Fafat on the site compiled by Alex Kasman at the College of Charleston. According to the Mathematics Geneology Project, a Marta Sved received a PhD in 1985 for a dissertation: On Finite Linear And Baer Structures.
Anyone know more?
Marta Sved wrote a fun paper called Tales from the “County Club”, a fun paper on combinatorial proofs that preceded and influenced my book with Jennifer Quinn on Proofs that Really Count. I always wanted to meet her.
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The eminent craniofacial surgeon Professor David David told me today that whilst a Professor of Mathematics at Adelaide University, Marta Sved developed an algorithm for the process of recreating 3D nylon models of patient’s skulls from CT scans. These have been used for many years by surgeons at the world-leading Australian Craniofacial Unit in Adelaide to plan complex surgery on babies and children disfigured by craniofacial anomalies. At a comparable price, the nylon skulls exceed in detail and precision (and predate by decades) the 3D printed skulls recently reported in the New York Times (NYT Jan 26, 2015 – D1) as a ‘disruptive’ new medical technology. I wonder if Professor Sved’s work featured prominently in the development of CAD-CAM and 3D printing?
She appears, as herself, in a film about Paul Erdos called N Is A Number. See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125425/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm for details