Sofia Krukovsky Kovalevskaya Born: 15 Jan 1850 in Moscow, Russia Died: 10 Feb 1891 in Stockholm, Sweden

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

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.

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.

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.

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 Crelle’s Journal in 1875), Abelian integrals Saturn's Rings.

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”.

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

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 Saturn’s rings, and this was the incentive she needed to complete it. All entries were turned in without their names attached.

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.

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

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

Issued by Russia on May 20, 1996 kovalev2.jpg 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/kovalev1.jpg Issued by Russia on May 20, 1996 kovalev2.jpg http://www.ga.k12.pa.us/academics/US/Math/Millar/Kovalevskaya/Kupersmith.htm

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

 Pictures of mom and dad   http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk:80/~history/Miscellaneous/Kovalevskaya/biog.html Saturn’s Rings http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/saturn/saturn_false.jpg

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