Meet Mary Tsingou: Mathematician who died at 97 after waiting 50 years for credit for a physics breakthrough that reduced her role to a footnote

American mathematician Mary Tsingou Nenzel helped develop a landmark physics experiment at Los Alamos in 1955, but her contribution was reduced to a footnote. More than 50 years later, her role gained wider recognition when the experiment became known as the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem. She died at her Los Angeles home in August 2026.