Mary Ellen Rudin (December 7, 1924 – March 18, 2013)[1] was an American mathematician known for her work in set-theoretic topology.

Her mother Irene was an English teacher before marriage, and her father Joe was a civil engineer.

The family moved with her father's work, but spent a great deal of Mary Ellen's childhood around Leakey, Texas.

Both of Rudin's maternal grandmothers had attended Mary Sharp College near their hometown of Winchester, Tennessee.

in 1944 after just three years before moving into the graduate program in mathematics under Robert Lee Moore.

[7] In 1953, she married mathematician Walter Rudin, whom she met while teaching at Duke University.

[14] Early proofs that every metric space is paracompact were somewhat involved, but Rudin provided an elementary one.

The prize was named after Mary Ellen Rudin, one of the most prominent topologists in the 20th century.