2023-05-12 10:39:00
While the history of mathematics sometimes focuses too much on the contributions of a small group of male mathematicians like Issac Newton the Euclid, the diverse contributions of women and minorities are often ignored.
In order to balance the scales a bit, we will now review the contributions of some of the most important female mathematical figures in history.
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
She was the daughter of the famous English poet Lord Byron, although she never got to know him. Lord Byron abandoned Ada’s mother shortly after her birth in 1815, and he died in 1824, when Ada was only 8 years old.
Ada’s mother, concerned that her daughter might inherit her father’s poetic and volatile temperament, nurtured Ada’s keen interest in mathematics and science from an early age. What she ultimately made her become a leading English mathematician and writer known for her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Enginean early mechanical calculating device.
Marie-Louise Lachapelle, the woman who gave birth to modern obstetrics
Lovelace is considered the first programmer in history, since she developed the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine. Her notes on the Analytical Engine laid the foundation for modern computer programming.
Emmy Noether (1882-1935)
Emmy Noether was a German mathematician who made important contributions in the fields of abstract algebra and theoretical physics. He is known for his Noether’s theorem.which establishes the connection between symmetries in physics and conservation laws.
His work on abstract algebra and ring theory had a lasting impact on these areas of mathematics.
Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891)
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Monument to the first Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya.
Sofia Kovalevskaya was a Russian mathematician who made significant contributions to the theory of partial differential equations, analysis, and mechanics.
She was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics and the first to hold a professorship in this discipline. Among her most notable achievements is the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem, which offers conditions for the existence and uniqueness of solutions of certain equations in partial derivatives.
Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017)
Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and a professor at Stanford University. Her research focused on hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and Riemann’s theory of surfaces.
Mirzakhani was the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics.which he obtained in 2014 for his contributions to the geometry and dynamics of Riemann surfaces.
Since 2018, every May 12, the International Women Mathematics Dayin commemoration of the birth date of this Iranian mathematician.
Julia Robinson (1919-1985)
Julia Robinson was an American mathematician who made important contributions to number theory, particularly in the area of Diophantine’s problem solvability.
Mary Anning, and why paleontology has a woman’s name
She is known for her work on Hilbert’s 10th problem, a longstanding problem in mathematics that asks whether there is an algorithm to determine whether a Diophantine equation has integer solutions. The solution to the problem, which involved the work of Robinson, Yuri Matiyasevich and other mathematicians, proved that there is no such algorithm.
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