Sofia Krukovsky Kovalevskaya

1
Sofia Krukovsky Kovalevskaya

• Born 15 Jan 1850 in Moscow, Russia
• Died 10 Feb 1891 in Stockholm, Sweden

2
Early Life

• Sofia Kovalevskaya was the middle child of Vasily
  Korvin-Krukovsky, and Velizaveta Shubert, both
  members of the Russian nobility.

3

• When Sofia was 11 years old, the walls of her
  nursery were papered with pages of Ostrogradski's
  lecture notes on differential and integral
  analysis. She noticed that certain things on the
  sheets she had heard mentioned by her uncle.
  Studying the wallpaper was Sofia's introduction
  to calculus.

4
Marriage and Family

• At the age of eighteen, she married Vladimir
  Kovalevski, a young paleontologist.
• Sofia gave birth to a daughter Sofya Vladimirovna
  in October of 1878 but, everybody called her
  Fufa.

5
Education

• In 1871 Sonya moved to Berlin to study with Karl
  Weierstrass. Despite the efforts of Weierstrass
  and his colleagues the university refused to
  permit her to take courses. This actually helped
  her, because over the next four years Weierstrass
  tutored her privately.
• In 1874 Kovalevskaya was granted her doctorate,
  summa cum laude, from Göttingen University.

6
Publications

• By the spring of 1874, Kovalevskaya had completed
  three papers. Weierstrass deemed each of these
  worthy of a doctorate.
• The three papers were on
• Partial differential equations (published in
• Crelles Journal in 1875),
• Abelian integrals
• Saturn's Rings.

7
Work Experience

• Kovalevskaya was unable to find a teaching
  position for many reasons, but her sex was a
  major handicap. Her rejections resulted in a six
  year period during which time she was bitter.
• The best job she was offered was teaching
  arithmetic to elementary classes of school girls,
  and remarked, I was unfortunately
  weak in the multiplication table.

8
University Experience

• Sonya finally found a position at the University
  of Stockholm, in Sweden. She was the only female
  mathematician in the country.

9
Prix Bordin

• In 1888 Sonya read an announcement about a
  competition sponsored by the Paris Academy of
  Sciences. This is the greatest prize offered for
  original work in mathematics. She was working on
  a paper about Saturns rings, and this was the
  incentive she needed to complete it. All entries
  were turned in without their names attached.

10

• On Christmas Eve 1888 the winner was announced
  and the following was said I am sure you are
  all just as eager as I am to see which of our
  fine men has triumphed.
• The announcer opened the envelope and after a
  long pause announced the winner as Sonya
  Kovalevsky.

11

• She became ill with depression and pneumonia. On
  February 10, 1891, Sofia Kovalevskaya died and
  the scientific world mourned her loss.

12
Bibliography

• Picture and History of Sonya Kovalevsky
• http//scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/Math/Kovalevsky.html
•  
• http//www.uh.edu/engines/epi225.htm
•  
• http//www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/kova.htm

13

• Stamp
• Issued by the Soviet Union on Aug. 15, 1951, part
  of a series to honor famous Russian scientists
  kovalev1.jpg
• http//www.geocities.com/mathstamps/images/kovalev
  1.jpg
• Issued by Russia on May 20, 1996 kovalev2.jpg
• http//www.ga.k12.pa.us/academics/US/Math/Millar/
  Kovalevskaya/Kupersmith.htm

14

• Göttingen University
• http//www.uni-goettingen.de/tour/campus.php 
• University of Stockholm
• http//www.su.se/organisation/presentation/english
  /tour.php3 
•  

15

•  Pictures of mom and dad
•   http//www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk80/history/M
  iscellaneous/Kovalevskaya/biog.html
• Saturns Rings
• http//nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/saturn/
  saturn_false.jpg

16

• Reimer, Wilbert Luetta, Mathematicians are
  people too. Stories from the lives of Great
  Mathematicians Volume Two, 1995, Dale Seymore
  Publications.