A postage stamp honoring her 175th birthday was put into circulation in Russia
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Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer of equality for women in mathematics. Kovalevskaya was the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, in the modern sense of that term, the first woman in Europe in modern times appointed to a full professorship in mathematics…
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science · Russian mathematician (1850–1891) · mathematician · physicist · novelist · university teacher · writer · also Sofia Kovalevskaya, Sofya Kovalevskaya, Sofya Kovalevskaia, Sofya Kovalevskaja, Sofya Kovalevsky, Sofia Kovalevskaia
Born 15 January 1850 · Died 10 February 1891 · Q184535
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2025· 1 entry
2024· 1 entry
Its name was changed to Vilnius "Sostinės" gymnasium
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1985· 1 entry
Ann Hibner Koblitz and her husband Neal established the Kovalevskaia Fund; a non-profit organization whose purpose is to support and encourage women in developing countries in science, mathematics, engineering, and medic
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1891· 3 entries
Died 1891-02-10.
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“It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet of the soul.”
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Aged forty-one, after returning from a vacation in Nice with Maxim
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1889· 2 entries
Kovalevskaya was appointed Ordinary Professor (full professor) in mathematics at Stockholm University, the first woman in Europe in modern times to hold such a position
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Kovalevskaya fell in love with Russian jurist Maxim Kovalevsky, a distant relation of her deceased husband, but insisted on not marrying him because she would not be able to settle down and live with him
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1888· 1 entry
Won the Prix Bordin of the French Academy of Science, for her work "Mémoire sur un cas particulier du problème de la rotation d'un corps pesant autour d'un point fixe, où l'intégration s'effectue à l'aide des fonctio
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1886· 1 entry
Awarded Bordin Prize (1886).
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1884· 1 entry
Kovalevskaya was appointed to a five-year position as Extraordinary Professor (assistant professor in modern terminology) and became an editor of the journal Acta Mathematica
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1883· 2 entries
Faced with worsening mood swings and the possibility of being prosecuted for his role in a stock swindle, Vladimir died by suicide
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With the help of the Swedish mathematician Gösta Mittag-Leffler, whom she had known as a fellow student of Weierstrass, Kovalevskaya was able to secure a position as a privat-docent at Stockholm University in Sweden
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1881· 1 entry
Kovalevskaya was elected as a member of the Moscow Mathematical Society (MMS)
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1875· 1 entry
For some unknown reason, perhaps the death of her father, Sofia and Vladimir decided to spend several years together as an actual married couple
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1874· 4 entries
Studied at University of Göttingen, Doctor of Philosophy (1874).
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Kovalevskaya and her husband Vladimir returned to Russia, but Vladimir failed to secure a professorship because of his radical beliefs (Kovalevskaya never would have been considered for such a position because of her gen
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Presented three papers—on partial differential equations, on the dynamics of Saturn's rings, and on elliptic integrals—to the University of Göttingen as her doctoral dissertation
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Studied at Frederick William University Berlin (1871–1874).
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1871· 1 entry
Kovalevskaya briefly travelled to Paris together with Vladimir in order to help in the Paris Commune, where Kovalevskaya attended the injured and her sister Anyuta was active in the Commune
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1870· 1 entry
Studied at Heidelberg University (1869–1870).
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1869· 1 entry
After a brief stay in Vienna, in order to pursue advanced studies
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1868· 1 entry
Contracted a "fictitious marriage" with Vladimir Kovalevsky, a young palaeontology student, book publisher and radical, who was the first to translate and publish the works of Charles Darwin in Russia
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1858· 1 entry
When Kovalevskaya was eight years old
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1850· 1 entry
Born 1850-01-15.
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