Sofia Kovalevskaya



"Say what you know, do what you must, come what may."

Sofia Kovalevskaya

Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), was the first major Russian female mathematician and responsible for important contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe and was also one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor.

Her family

Sofia Kovalevskaya was born in Moscow, and was the second of three children. Her father, Vasily Vasilyevich Korvin-Krukovsky, was a man of Polish descent and was Lieutenant-General of Artillery who served in the Imperial Russian Army Her mother, Yelizaveta Fedorovna Schubert, was a scholarly woman of German ancestry and Sofia's grandmother was Romani .When she was 11 years old, the wall of her room had been papered with pages from lecture notes of differential and integral analysis, which was her early preparation for calculus.


Her education

Despite her obvious talent for mathematics, she could not complete her education in Russia. At that time, women there were not allowed to attend universities. In order to study abroad, she needed written permission from her father (or husband). Although her father provided her with private tutoring (including calculus at age 15 ) he would not allow her to study abroad for further education.

So accordingly, she contracted a "fictitious marriage" with Vladimir Kovalevskij. Then a young paleontology student who would later become famous for his collaboration with Charles Darwin. They emigrated from Russia in 1867. In 1869, Kovalevskaya began attending the University of Heidelberg. Germany, which allowed her to audit classes as long as the professors involved gave their approval

Russian society in the 19th century

Secondary education was unavailable to women until the 1850s, and higher education was unavailable until the 1870s. What little education middle class women received was largely vocational, amounting to skills in marriage, housekeeping, and motherhood. A Russian woman's father and husband controlled most aspects of her life. Even middle class women could not vote, hold their own passports, or attend high schools or universities. Sofia was a very intelligent girl, and her father didn’t like smart women, so he decided to interrupt in her mathematics classes, but she continued to study with her algebra books.


What did she do?

Sofia Kovalevskaya was not only a great mathematician but also a writer and advocate of women's rights in the 19th century. It was her struggle to obtain the best education available which began to open doors at universities to women. In addition, her groundbreaking work in mathematics made her male counterparts reconsider their archaic notions of women's inferiority to men in such scientific arenas.

Her studies

Sofia was a very intelligent girl, and her father didn’t like smart women, so he decided to interrupt her mathematics classes, but she continued to study with her algebra books. In 1870, Sofia decided that she wanted to pursue studies under Karl Weierstrass at the University of Berlin. Weierstrass was considered one of the most renowned mathematicians of his time, and at first the university did not take Sofia seriously. Only after evaluating a problem set he had given her did he realize the genius at his hands. The university immediately set to work privately tutoring her because the university still would not permit women to attend. Sofia studied under Weierstrass for four years. She is quoted as having said, "These studies had the deepest possible influence on my entire career in mathematics. They determined finally and irrevocably the direction I was to follow in my later scientific work: all my work has been done precisely in the spirit of Weierstrass".


Her achievements

During her years in Berlín she wrote three theories: two about mathematics topics and a third one about astronomy. Later on, her first theory was published in a mathematical publication, in which, only the most prestigious minds contribute. She wrote her most important project, that figured out some of the mathematical problems that some important mathematicians dedicated many time and hard work to figured them out. Between her projects are: theory of differential equations and a theory about the rotation of a solid body around a fixed point.


Tributes

Paula Rodríguez - 3B ESO