Sofia Kovalevskaya

Sofia Kovalevskaya was born in Russia in 1850, at a time when the world of mathematics in her homeland was closed to all women regardless of interest or talent. At the age of eighteen, Sofia Korvin-Krukovskaya's desire to find a place where she could further her education was so great that she entered into a fictitious marriage with a young nihilist, Vladimir Kovalevsky, so that he could help her travel to Germany to study mathematics. Although women were not allowed to attend university...See more

Sofia Kovalevskaya was born in Russia in 1850, at a time when the world of mathematics in her homeland was closed to all women regardless of interest or talent. At the age of eighteen, Sofia Korvin-Krukovskaya's desire to find a place where she could further her education was so great that she entered into a fictitious marriage with a young nihilist, Vladimir Kovalevsky, so that he could help her travel to Germany to study mathematics. Although women were not allowed to attend university classes in Berlin or even to enter the buildings, because of the great talent for mathematics she demonstrated, she was invited to study privately under Germany's most renowned mathematician, Karl Weierstrass. After four years of hard work, she succeeded in obtaining a doctoral degree, the first ever awarded to a woman. She went on to win the Prix Bordin, an honor as great as winning the Nobel Prize, and became an editor of the prestigious mathematics journal Acta Mathematica. In 1889, she was awarded a full professorship at the University of Stockholm, another first for women. Her work on the theory of partial differential equations continues to influence the research of mathematicians around the world. In addition to her success in mathematics, she was recognized as a talented writer who published a much-acclaimed autobiography, A Russian Childhood, a novella, Nihilist Girl, and two parallel plays, How It Was and How It Might Have Been, under the joint title The Struggle for Happiness. The Association for Women in Mathematics has honored Kovalevskaya's contribution to women's education for many years through Sonya Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day celebrations encouraging girls to study mathematics. They also sponsor a Sonya Kovalevsky Lecture Series recognizing significant contributions to the field of applied mathematics by women. A lunar crater has been named in her honor. See less