Grace Bates, American mathematician and academic (died 1996)

Grace Elizabeth Bates was an American mathematician and one of few women in the United States to be granted a Ph.D. in mathematics in the 1940s. She became an emeritus professor at Mount Holyoke College. Bates specialized in algebra and probability theory, and she co-authored two textbooks: The Real Number System and Modern Algebra, Second Course. Throughout her own education, Bates overcame obstructions to her pursuit of knowledge, opening the way for future women learners.