Edith Alice Müller (5 February 1918 – 24 July 1995^[1]) was a Spanish-Swiss mathematician and astronomer.^[2] In 2018, the Swiss Society for Astronomy and Astrophysics (SSAA) launched the annual Edith Alice Müller Award for outstanding astronomy PhD theses in Switzerland.^[3]

Müller was born inMadrid, and attended theGerman School there before studying atETH Zurich.^[4] She completed her PhD in mathematics in 1943 at theUniversity of Zurich with the title "Application of Group Theory and Structural Analysis to the Moorish Adornments of the Alhambra in Granada".^[2] This was a key piece of literature in the study ofIslamic design, at a time when many western historians assumed Islamic design had no base in science and was a simple craft; her research was not to absorbed intoart historical literature until the 1980s.^[5]

She held research positions at astronomical observatories in Zurich (1946–1951), theUniversity of Michigan (1952–1954 and 1955–1962), and Basel (1954–1955), before becoming an assistant professor at theUniversity of Neuchâtel in 1962. In 1972 she moved to theUniversity of Geneva as a full professor.^[4] She was principally involved in the study ofsolar physics and was the first woman to be appointed General Secretary of theInternational Astronomical Union, a title she held from 1976 to 1979.^[6]

• Chmielewski, Yves (1998)."Edith Alice Müller (1918–1995)". In Appenzeller, I.; et al. (eds.).Remembering Edith Alice Müller. Astrophysics and Space Science Library. Vol. 222. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 6–8.doi:10.1007/978-94-011-5173-3_2.ISBN 978-94-010-6175-9. Retrieved24 August 2023.
• Chorbachi, W.K. (1989)."In the Tower of Babel: Beyond symmetry in islamic design".Computers & Mathematics with Applications.17 (4–6):751–789.doi:10.1016/0898-1221(89)90260-5.MR 0994228.
• Riedtmann, Christine (2010)."Wege von Frauen: Mathematikerinnen in der Schweiz" [Paths of Women Mathematicians in Switzerland](PDF). In Colbois, Bruno; et al. (eds.).math.ch/100: Schweizerische Mathematische Gesellschaft – Société Mathématique Suisse – Swiss Mathematical Society 1910. Berlin:EMS Press. p. 12.doi:10.4171/089-1/18.ISBN 978-3-03719-089-0.

• Appenzeller, I.; et al., eds. (1998).Remembering Edith Alice Müller. Astrophysics and Space Science Library. Vol. 222. Dordrecht:Springer Netherlands.doi:10.1007/978-94-011-5173-3.ISBN 978-94-010-6175-9.
• Blaauw, Adriaan (31 December 1996)."Edith Alice Müller (1918–1995)".Bulletin of the AAS.28 (4): 1457.Bibcode:1996BAAS...28.1457B.
• Maeder, A. (June 1996). "Edith A. Müller (5 February 1918 - 24 July 1995)".Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.37 (2):267–268.Bibcode:1996QJRAS..37..267M.

• 20th-century Swiss mathematicians
• Swiss women mathematicians
• 20th-century Swiss astronomers
• Swiss art historians
• Women astronomers
• Academic staff of the University of Neuchâtel
• Academic staff of the University of Geneva
• 1918 births
• 1995 deaths
• 20th-century women mathematicians
• Women art historians
• 20th-century Swiss women scientists
• Spanish emigrants to Switzerland
• ETH Zurich alumni

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