Died: 10 Feb 1891 in Stockholm, Sweden

The outstanding Russian mathematician, Sophia Kovalevskaya, was born in Moscow on January 5, 1850 to a well-off family of an artillery general, Korvi-Krukovsky.Sofia lived in St. Petersburg and joined her family's social circle, which included the author Dostoevsky.

Though Sophia liked literature very much, she showed an unusual gift in mathematics, too. 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.When she was only twelve she surprised her teacher by suggesting a new solution for the determination of the ratio of the diameter of the circle to its circumference.

In 1866, Sophia and her older sister were taken to St. Petersburg where Sophia went on with her studies. But, as women were not permitted to attend public lectures, she was obliged to read privately. She applied for permission to attend lectures at the University. Although the permission was granted, she was not allowed to take examinations, to say nothing of taking a degree.

The only possible way out for her was to go abroad. There was a condition, which was to be observed. If a woman wanted to go abroad, she should be married. Sofia was forced to marry so that she could go abroad to enter higher education. At the age of eighteen, she entered a nominal marriage with Vladimir Kovalevsky a young palaeontologist. This marriage caused problems for Sofia and, throughout its fifteen years, it was a source of intermittent sorrow. They left for Vienna where she began to study physics at the University. Soon Sophia made up her mind to go to Heidelberg University. There she could study and her intention was to take examinations and get a degree (Ph.D.).

In 1870 the Kovalevskys went to Berlin. During the four years spent in Berlin, Sophia succeeded not only in covering the University course but also in writing three dissertations, for which the University granted her a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in absentia. By the spring of 1874, Kovalevskaya had completed three papers. Weierstrass deemed each of these worthies of a doctorate. The three papers were on Partial differential equations, Abelian integrals and Saturn's Rings. In 1874 Kovalevskaya was granted her doctorate from Göttingen University.

Despite this doctorate Kovalevskaya was unable to obtain an academic position. This was for a combination of reasons, but her sex was a major handicap.

Some years later the Kovalevskys returned to St. Petersburg. Sophia Kovalevskaya, an outstanding scientist already, could not get any position at the University and was obliged to turn to journalism. But as she had made up her mind to take her Magister's Degree, she returned to Berlin to complete her work on the refraction of light in crystals.

It was only in 1883 that she was given an opportunity to report on the results of her research at a session held in Odessa, but again no post followed. That is why, when she was offered lectureship at Stockholm University, she willingly accepted the offer.

In 1888 she achieved the greatest of her successes, winning the highest prize offered by Paris Academy of Sciences for the solution of complicated problem: to perfect in one important point the theory of the movement of solid body about an immovable point. The solution suggested by her made a valuable addition to the results submitted by Euler and Lagrange. The prize was doubled as recognition of the unusual merits of her work.

In 1889 Sophia Kovalevskaya was awarded another prize, this time by the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Soon in spite of her being the only woman-lecturer in Sweden, she was elected professor of mathematics and held the post until her death.

Along with her scientific and pedagogical work she carried out a good deal of literary work. In consideration of her literary work she was elected member of the Literary Club in Stockholm, where she used to meet Ibsen and Grieg with whom she made friends.

Unfortunately, Sophia Kovalevskaya died at the age of 41 just as she had attained the height of her fame and had won recognition even in her own country where she was elected member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

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