First Woman President of the London Mathematical Society

In 1969, Mary Cartwright was elected President of the London Mathematical Society, becoming the first woman ever to hold this prestigious position since the society's founding in 1865.

The London Mathematical Society is one of the foremost mathematical societies in the world, and its presidency represented recognition of Cartwright's decades of pioneering research, particularly her groundbreaking work with J. E. Littlewood on nonlinear differential equations related to radio and radar technology during and after the Second World War—work that later proved foundational to the field now known as chaos theory.

Her election as president was a significant milestone in the broader struggle for women's acceptance and leadership within mathematical and scientific institutions, which had historically excluded women from positions of authority and, in many cases, from full membership altogether. Cartwright's leadership helped pave the way for future generations of women mathematicians to be considered for similarly influential roles.

This achievement, alongside her earlier distinction as the first woman elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in mathematics (1947) and her damehood (1969), cemented her legacy as one of the most important trailblazers for women in mathematics in the twentieth century.