What do you think of when you see the name Florence Nightingale? Most likely not that she was a mathematician. I got the assignment to write about a mathematician so I went in search of someone to write about and Florence Nightingale was my choice.
Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy (a lovely place if I might add) on May 12, 1820, while her parents were traveling in Europe. She grew up in Derbyshire and Embly in England. She was educated by a governess and later by her father. Miss Nightingale wanted to study mathematics and "begged her parents to let her study mathematics instead of:- . . .worsted work and practicing quadrilles." (For those who don't know, that is knitting and dancing. I would have to agree with her.) Of course her parents thought that this was not the suitable thing for her so she continued to ask them until they gave in.
Miss Nightingale became interested in social work and wanted to work as a nurse in a hospital but her family did not like that idea. At the time nurses were seen as ignorant and unrefined women who were often drunk. She ended up with a job as a nurse for the Military during the Crimean War. She was shocked at the conditions that soldiers were exposed to in the hospitals. While she worked to improve the sanitation in the hospitals, she also started collecting data on disease and the mortality rate. She used her knowledge of mathematics to document the decrease in the mortality rate from 60% to 42.7% in just a few months. By improving the water supply, nutrition, sanitation, and hospital equipment, only two months later the mortality rate had dropped to just 2.2%
There is a chart at the web site  http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/nightpiechart.htm. The chart is titled Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East. The chart shows deaths from preventable diseases,

from wounds suffered in battle, and from other reasons. She also found out that back in London men in the army were twice as likely to die from preventable diseases than the rest of the population. She worked for the soldiers to have better living conditions. Because of her work with statistics to decrease the mortality rates she became the first woman to be a Fellow in the Royal Statistical Society.
She started the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses in 1860, which helped turn nursing into a respected profession. She published over 200 books, pamphlets, and reports. In 1874 she also became an honorary member of the American Statistical Society. In 1883 she received the Royal Red Cross from Queen Victoria, and in 1907 Edward VII awarded her the Order of Merit. (She was the first woman to receive this honor.)
Florence Nightingale never married. She died at age 90, August 13, 1910.

by Katie Nelson