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Timeline of women in mathematics

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This article is a timeline of women in mathematics.

Timeline

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350–370 until 415: The lifetime of Hypatia, a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher from Alexandria, Egypt, who was the first well-documented woman in mathematics.[1] She was head of the Neoplatonic School in Alexandria from the year 400. Her students were young men from around the empire.

1678: Elena Cornaro Piscopia from Venice became one of the first women to get an academic degree from a university, and was the first woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree. She went on to become a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Padua. [source?]

19th Century

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1827: The theorem of French mathematician Sophie Germain, known as Germain's Theorem, was published in a footnote of a book by the mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre.[2][3] In this theorem Germain proved that if x, y, and z are integers and if x5 + y5 = z5 then either x, y, or z must be divisible by 5. Germain's theorem was a major step toward proving Fermat's last theorem for the case where n equals 5.[2]

1829: The first public examination of an American girl in geometry was held.[4]

1874: Russian mathematician Sofya Kovalevskaya became the first woman in modern Europe to gain a doctorate in mathematics, which she earned from the University of Göttingen in Germany.[5]

1888: The Kovalevskaya top, one of a brief list of known examples of integrable rigid body motion, was discovered by Sofya Kovalevskaya.[6][7]

1889: Sofya Kovalevskaya was appointed as the first female professor in Northern Europe, at the Stockholm University.[5][8]

20th Century

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1918: German mathematician Emmy Noether published Noether's (first) theorem.

1927: American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler became the first woman to present a lecture at the American Mathematical Society Colloquium.[9]

1930: Cecilia Krieger became the first woman to earn a PhD in mathematics in Canada, at the University of Toronto.[10]

1956: American mathematician Gladys West began collecting data from satellites at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Her calculations directly impacted the development of accurate GPS systems.[11]

1960 and 1966: Lucy Joan Slater published two books about mathematical functions from the Cambridge University Press, one of the world's largest academic publishers.[12][13]

1983: Julia Robinson became the first female president of the American Mathematical Society.[14]

1995: American mathematician Margaret H. Wright became the first female president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.[9]

1998: Melanie Wood became the first female American to make the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team. She won silver medals in the 1998 and 1999 International Mathematical Olympiads.[15]

21st Century

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2004: American Alison Miller became the first ever female gold medal winner on the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team.[16]

2016: The London Mathematical Society's Women in Mathematics Committee was awarded the Royal Society's inaugural Athena Prize.

2019: American mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck became the first woman to win the Abel Prize."[17][18]

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References

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  1. ↑ Scholasticus, Socrates. Ecclesiastical History. Archived from the original on 2009-04-18.
  2. 1 2 "Sophie Germain". agnesscott.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  3. ↑ "Sophie Germain page". math.rochester.edu. Archived from the original on 2023-08-20. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  4. ↑ Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthony; Matilda Joslyn Gage; Ida Husted Harper, eds. (1889). History of Woman Suffrage: 1848–1861, Volume 1. Susan B. Anthony. p. 36. Retrieved 2011-04-18. the first public examination of a girl in geometry (1829).
  5. 1 2 "Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (Russian mathematician) -- Encyclopædia Britannica". britannica.com. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  6. ↑ S. Kovalevskaya, Sur Le Probleme De La Rotation D'Un Corps Solide Autour D'Un Point Fixe, Acta Mathematica 12 (1889) 177–232.
  7. ↑ E. T. Whittaker, A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies, Cambridge University Press (1952).
  8. ↑ "COOL, CREATIEF, HIP met ICT - Innovative women". chai-x.nl. Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  9. 1 2 "Prizes, Awards, and Honors for Women Mathematicians". agnesscott.edu. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  10. ↑ Zuschlag, Anna. "Cecilia Krieger". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2018-08-22.
  11. ↑ "How Gladys West uncovered the 'Hidden Figures' of GPS". GPS World. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2018-09-22.
  12. ↑ Slater, Lucy Joan (1960), Confluent hypergeometric functions, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
  13. ↑ Slater, Lucy Joan (1966), Generalized hypergeometric functions, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  14. ↑ "Profiles of Women in Mathematics: Julia Robinson". awm-math.org. Archived from the original on 2018-07-04. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  15. ↑ "The New York Times". Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  16. ↑ "Math Forum @ Drexel: Congratulations, Alison!". mathforum.org. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  17. ↑ "IMPA - Karen Uhlenbeck: The Struggle for a Place in the Sun". Impa.br. Archived from the original on 2019-02-18. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  18. ↑ Change, Kenneth (March 19, 2019). "Karen Uhlenbeck Is First Woman to Receive Abel Prize in Mathematics". New York Times. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
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