4-46. Sophia Kovalevskaya

Sophia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891) was born in Moskow, the daughter of a Russian infantry officer, Vasily Vasilievich Korvin-Krukovsky, and Elizaveta Shubert. The family spent time in St. Petersburg, where they engaged a tutor in mathematics for their daughter. In 1868 Sophia married Vladimir Kovalevsky (1842–1883), and after a year in St. Petersburg, the couple left Russia for Germany to pursue higher education. She attended lectures by Helmholtz, Kirchhoff, Bunsen, Königsberger and Paul Du Bois-Reymond in Heidelberg. In 1871 she moved to Berlin, where Weierstrass agreed to give her private lessons, as she was formally forbidden to attend his lectures, on account of being female. In 1874, with Weierstrass’ support, she defended a doctoral thesis in mathematics at the University of Göttingen, becoming the first woman to obtain this qualification in mathematics. She eventually habilitated, with the support of Mittag-Leffler at the Stockholm Hogsköla, where in 1884 she was named assistant professor. In 1889 she was promoted to full professor, a position she held until her untimely death in 1891.11endnote: 1 On Kovalevskaya’s life and career, see Mittag-Leffler (1892), Kramer (1973), Koblitz (1983), Cooke (1984) and Audin (2017).

The five letters exchanged between Poincare and Kovalevskaya fall in the Stockholm period, and concern Weierstrass’ work, and questions related to the edition of Acta Mathematica, of which Kovalevskaya was an active collaborator.

Time-stamp: "24.08.2024 21:36"

Notes

  • 1 On Kovalevskaya’s life and career, see Mittag-Leffler (1892), Kramer (1973), Koblitz (1983), Cooke (1984) and Audin (2017).

References

  • M. Audin (Ed.) (2017) Sophie Kovalevsky, Souvenirs d’enfance suivis d’une biographie par Mme A. Ch. Leffler. Spartacus-Idh, Paris. External Links: Link Cited by: endnote 1.
  • R. Cooke (1984) The Mathematics of Sonya Kovalevskaya. Springer, New York. External Links: Link Cited by: endnote 1.
  • C. C. Gillispie (Ed.) (1973) Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7: Iamblichus–Karl Landsteiner. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Cited by: E. Kramer (1973).
  • A. H. Koblitz (1983) Sofia Kovalevskaia: Scientist, Writer, Revolutionary. Birkhäuser, Boston. Cited by: endnote 1.
  • E. Kramer (1973) Kovalevsky, Sonya. See Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7: Iamblichus–Karl Landsteiner, Gillispie, pp. 477–480. Cited by: endnote 1.
  • G. Mittag-Leffler (1892) Sophie Kovalevsky. Acta mathematica 16, pp. 385–392. External Links: Link Cited by: endnote 1.