Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) was born into a family of minor nobility (her father was a general) in Polibino. She was interested in mathematics from a very young age when her uncle would talk to her about mathematical principles before she could even understand what they were. After she began taking lessons in math with the family tutor, Kovalevskaya developed such a love for the subject that she started to neglect her other studies. Due to laws that prohibited single women from traveling alone, Kovalevskaya entered into a marriage of convenience with Vladimir Kovalevsky, a paleontologist. In 1869, she moved to Heidelberg with her husband so she could study at the university there, however, because she was a woman, she could only take classes unofficially. After three semesters, she moved to Berlin to study under renowned mathematician Karl Weierstrass. She produced three papers in this time to attempt to receive her doctoral degree.
Kovalevskaya's first paper, "On the Theory of Partial Differential Equations" was her most important paper and was published in an important journal, Crelle's Journal, in 1875. This paper led to the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya Theorem, which is an existence theorem in differential equations. Her second paper was on elliptic integrals, and the final paper was a mathematical explanation of the formation of Saturn's rings, based on her theory that the rings were elliptic. These papers gained Kovaleyskaya a doctorate from the University of Gottingen in 1874.
She was hindered in many ways just by being a woman, but always found ways to overcome this, and later in life advocated women's rights, especially in academia. Kovalevskaya was eventually invited to lecture in mathematics at the University of Stockholm in 1883 and was promoted to full professor in 1889. In 1888 she was awarded the Prix Bordin for her paper on the rotation of a solid body about a fixed point. She died at only forty-one years of age of pneumonia.
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| Cauchy-Kovalevskaya Theorem |
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Projects/Ellison/Chapters/Ch5.html
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Projects/Ellison/Chapters/Ch7.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/323006/Sofya-Vasilyevna-Kovalevskaya
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/kova.htm
http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/science-and-technology/sofia-kovalevskaya/
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