As a professorAs a professor of math at Hunter College, doing research in pure mathematics, Dr Whittemore became concerned that her research was so esoteric that perhaps only 20 people in the world knew what she was doing. Her transition into the "real world" began by teaching statistics. One summer, while taking a course for mathematicians at Cornell University, she learned about a program sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, whose primary mission was to make mathematics relevant to society. She applied for the program, and received a fellowship in 1974 to work at New York University on problems in cancer research, applying mathematics. That was the seminal event. After that, she never wanted to teach calculus again! She worked on cancer research with Dr. Bernard Altshuler, focusing on problems of environmental risk factors for cancer. That was where she met J. B. Keller, who was the mathematician assigned to oversee her transition into cancer research.