January 15 – Happy Birthday, Sofia Kovalevskaya

nPosted on January 15, 2019

Key points

nThere is a Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day all across the United States (although it’s celebrated on different dates in different schools and universities) – even though Sonia Kovalevsky never studied, lived, or even visited the U.S.

Before I go any further, I want to warn you that today’s famous birthday has a lot of different spellings and pronunciations of her name:

nSonia, Sonya, Sofia, Sofya, Sophia, Sophie.

nHer maiden surname was Korvin-Krukovskaya, and her married surname was Kovalevsky, Kovalevskaya, Kowalevski, Kowalevsky.

nI read that, in Russian, her name was Со́фья Васи́льевна Ковале́вская – and that, in her academic publications, she went by Sophie Kowalevski. The crater on the Moon that is named for her is Kovalevskaya, and the international fund supporting women in science is named the Kovalevskaia Fund. The grant-making program for high school students and the lecture series on industrial and applied mathematics both go by Sonia or Sonya Kovalevsky.

nKovalevskaya was born on this date in 1850 in Moscow, Russia, and she became way better educated than most Russian girls (or, to be honest, girls anywhere at the time), thanks to her parents, her multilingual governesses, and her private tutors. However, she was not allowed to attend university in Russia, and she wasn’t even allowed to study abroad without written permission from either her father or her husband.

nShe didn’t have a husband…but she could get one!

nKovalevskaya arranged a fictitious marriage with a paleontologist (the very one who first translated Charles Darwin’s works into Russian, by the way), and together they traveled to Germany and other nations in Europe.

nKovalevskaya had to work really, really hard to be allowed to audit courses in Heidelberg, Germany, and she later ended up doing the private tutor thing in Berlin – because, as in Moscow, she was not allowed to even audit classes.

nAfter studying mathematics, mechanics, and physics and presenting papers on differential equations, the dynamics of Saturn’s rings, and elliptical integrals, Kovalevskaya became the first woman to obtain a doctorate in mathematics.

nEventually she became the first woman in northern Europe to be a full professor (this was in Sweden) and one of the first women to work as an editor for a scientific journal.

nShe also won a prize from the French Academy of Science and was made a “Corresponding Member” of the Russian Academy of Sciences and wrote several non-mathematical books and and and…

nKovalevskaya has been called the greatest woman scientist before the 20th Century. And all of her accomplishments occurred before she died of pneumonia, at age 41. With all the roadblocks in her way, and taking into consideration the several years she took off to bear and raise a daughter to preschool age, Kovalevskaya accomplished a lot!

nIt’s so good that most modern societies don’t throw up as many roadblocks for women, these days, but worldwide we could do a lot better to encourage and support girls and women in education, especially STEM education. And surely we would all be better off if EVERYONE were able to contribute!