SOFIA KOVALEVSKAYA

(1850-1891)

Sofia Kovalevskaya, not only a great mathematician but also a feminist in the 19th century, was born in 1850 in a Russian family of minor nobility. Not a happy child, Sofia was under the care of a strict governess who tried to turn the young child into a noble lady. Along with becoming ladylike, Sofia became interested in mathematics. She studied her father's calculus notes from a very young age. It was her uncle Peter who encouraged her curiosity in the field of mathematics by discussing various mathematical concepts with her. At the age of 14, Sofia taught herself trigonometry in order to understand a section of a physics book. The author of the book, also a neighbour of her family, convinced her father to allow her to study in St. Petersburg.

After graduating from secondary school, Kovalevskaya wanted to continue her education but encountered difficulties as the closest universities allowing female students were in Switzerland. Unmarried women were not permitted to travel alone. In order to solve this problem, Sofia married Vladimir Kovalevsky in 1886. In 1870, the young mathematician was enrolled in University of Berlin, where she was supervised by Karl Weiestrass, one of the most renowned mathematicians of his time. Sofia received her PhD in 1874 and yet even with this prestigious degree she could not find employment. Six years had to pass by before she returned in the scene of science when she presented a paper on Abelian Integrals at a scientific Conference. Her career flourished when she received an invitation to lecture at the University of Stockholm, where she taught for five years. In 1885, she was appointed Chair of Mechanics. Her successes didn't stop here - in 1888 she won the Prix Bordin by the French Academy of Science with her paper "On the Rotation of a Solid Body about a Fixed Point". In this paper, Kovalevskaya presented her theory for an unsymmetrical body where the centre of its mass is not on an axis in the body.

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