Iris Runge

The book deals with the origins of mathematical problem solving at the international Osram and Telefunken corporations during the golden years of broadcasting and vacuum tubes. The woman scientist Iris Runge, educated at Göttingen University with a broad interdisciplinary background, was long employed as the sole mathematical authority at these companies in Berlin. It will be shown how a mathematical bridge was constructed between statistics and quality control of mass products, and between physical-chemical models and concrete product problems. The structure of industrial laboratories, the relation between theoretical and experimental work and the role of mathematicians in these settings will be explained. By investigating the social, economic, and political conditions that unfolded from the time of the German Empire until the end of the Second World War, the book hopes to build a bridge between specialized fields '¬ ; mathematics and engineering '¬ ; and the general culture of this particular era. The book also hopes to build a bridge between the history of science and industry, on the one hand, and the fields of Gender and Women'¬"s Studies on the other. By examining the life and work of many industrial researchers, insight can be gained into the conditions that enabled a woman to achieve a prominent professional position.