| Article 13420 of sci.math:
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From: JRAMSDEN@ENH.Prime.COM
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <67400040@ENH.Prime.COM>
Date: 15 Nov 90 19:13:10 GMT
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Nf-ID: #R:shlump.nac.dec.com:-1733500:ENH:67400040:000:2638
Nf-From: ENH.Prime.COM!JRAMSDEN Nov 15 12:12:00 1990
Next Monday ? mmm that's cutting it a bit fine, but if it's any help
here's a brain dump of the women mathematicians I know of.
Firstly there was the head librarian of the library of Alexandria in
the 6th century. I don't remember her name exactly, but it was
something like Hypathia.
Unfortunately she came to a sticky end (skinned alive) when Egypt was
invaded by Muslim tribesmen. In fairness, the Arabians did a very
good job preserving Greek mathematical & scientific writings, and
adding to them (particularly in medicine & astronomy). But the
commander of the raiding party referred to above was apparently
something of an airhead whose motto was "if in doubt burn it" !
On the occasion in question he is reported to have said (of the
books) "If they are commentaries on the Koran they are superflous,
and otherwise if they are not the Koran they are heretical"
Moving on a few centuries to the 19th, there was Sophia Germaine. She
corresponded with the German mathematician Carl Gauss, and is
credited with several significant results, including a criterion for
the existence of cubic residues, and a divisibility result relating
to Fermat's last Theorem.
(I always get her muddled up with Sophus Lie. But recently I was
surprised to find out that the latter was a man, contrary to what I
seemed to have remembered reading earlier.)
Gauss was not aware that Sophia was a woman, and was astonished when
she whisked off her false beard, let down her hair, and revealed all.
(This is artistic licence on my part - I think she actually informed
him by letter :-)
In the same century there was Ada Lovelace, who ably assisted Charles
Babbage with his work on the well known Difference Engine.
Recently I imagine the number of women involved with mathematics must
have increased considerably. Two who come to mind are Olga Taussky,
who has done work on quadratic forms, and young (using that word
advisedly) Ruth Lawrence at Harvard. I don't know what Ruth is
engaged on at the moment, but having got her degree when she was
about 12 or something, it must be fairly advanced !
------------------------------------------------------------------------
John R Ramsden | The hen is a noble beast,
(jramsden@enh.Prime.Com) | but the cow is forlorner,
Prime Computer Inc, | as it stands in a muddy field
Framingham, Mass. | with a leg at each corner.
| W Maconnegal (19th Scottish poet)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 13426 of sci.math:
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From: ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Seaman)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <16730@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 90 20:35:27 GMT
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Organization: Purdue University
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In article <67400040@ENH.Prime.COM> JRAMSDEN@ENH.Prime.COM writes:
>Firstly there was the head librarian of the library of Alexandria in
>the 6th century. I don't remember her name exactly, but it was
>something like Hypathia.
I submit that there is a difference between a librarian and a mathematician.
For a real mathematician, try Emmy Noether (for whom Noetherian rings are
named).
--
Dave Seaman
ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu
Article 13431 of sci.math:
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From: georgiou@rex.cs.tulane.edu (George Georgiou)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <4976@rex.cs.tulane.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 90 21:52:03 GMT
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Organization: Computer Science Dept., Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA
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In article <16730@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Seaman) writes:
>For a real mathematician, try Emmy Noether (for whom Noetherian rings are
>named).
Here is reference:
Emmy Noether, a tribute to her life and work / editors, James W. Brewer, Martha
K. Smith. -- New York : M. Dekker, c1981.
x, 180 p., <10> p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.
Includes bibliographies and index.
Noether, Emmy, 1882-1935.
CALL NUMBER: QA29.N6 E47
George Georgiou georgiou@rex.cs.tulane.edu
Computer Science Department +---------------------------+
Tulane University | Fiat Lux |
New Orleans, LA 70118 +---------------------------+
Article 13432 of sci.math:
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From: jfh@cs.brown.edu (John Forbes Hughes)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <56520@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 15 Nov 90 21:53:29 GMT
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Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Reply-To: jfh@cs.brown.edu (John Forbes Hughes)
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
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In article <16730@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Seaman) writes:
>In article <67400040@ENH.Prime.COM> JRAMSDEN@ENH.Prime.COM writes:
>>Firstly there was the head librarian of the library of Alexandria in
>>the 6th century. I don't remember her name exactly, but it was
>>something like Hypathia.
>
>I submit that there is a difference between a librarian and a mathematician.
>For a real mathematician, try Emmy Noether (for whom Noetherian rings are
>named).
>
>--
>Dave Seaman
>ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu
And I submit that one person can be two things at once. For example,
President Garfield came up with a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.
To that extent, he was a mathematician, although he was primarily a
politician. I believe that W.R. Hamilton was not primarily a mathematician
either.
And, by a peculiar coincidence, Julia Robinson was "officially" a
statistician, although she was actually a mathematician. There is a
long and amusing story behind this one; perhaps she would make a
good subject for the original poster's daughter's paper...
One anecdote: when she was at Berkeley, she got a request from some
administrator asking how she spent her time. She ignored it, and was asked
again, and finally asked her deaprtment chair what to do. The chairperson
said "Just write down what you did each day last week." What she wrote was
"Monday: Tried to prove conjecture. Tuesday: Tried to prove conjecture.
Wednesday: Tried to prove conjecture. Thursday: Tried to prove conjecture.
Friday: Conjecture false." Apparently the administrators didn't ask again.
-John Hughes
Article 13445 of sci.math:
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From: millan@math.arizona.edu (Emilio Millan)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <2322@amethyst.math.arizona.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 90 04:44:19 GMT
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One other famous female mathematician is the Russian, Sofia Kovalevskaya.
For information, see her autobiographical A RUSSIAN CHILDHOOD, published
by Springer-Verlag, or the biography LITTLE SPARROW.
Emilio
Article 13440 of sci.math:
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From: harper@oravax.UUCP (Douglas Harper)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <1783@oravax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Nov 90 02:31:22 GMT
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Reply-To: harper@oravax.odyssey.UUCP (Douglas Harper)
Organization: Odyssey Research Associates, Ithaca, New York
Lines: 17
In article <67400040@ENH.Prime.COM> JRAMSDEN@ENH.Prime.COM writes:
>Firstly there was the head librarian of the library of Alexandria in
>the 6th century. I don't remember her name exactly, but it was
>something like Hypathia.
>
>Unfortunately she came to a sticky end (skinned alive) when Egypt was
>invaded by Muslim tribesmen.
This is a rather unfortunate time to accuse Muslims of a crime they
couldn't have committed. Hypatia was in fact brutally murdered by
fanatical Christians, not Muslims of any stripe. This is hardly
surprising, considering that she died in 415 A.D, whereas Muhammad
wasn't born until ca. 570 A.D.
--
--
Douglas Harper oravax!harper@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu
|
|
Yes, getting the information by Monday is a little tight.
Two famous women mathematicians have been mentioned in this conference:
Sonya (Sofia) Kovalevsky, who was a student of Weierstrass, in the
second half of the 19th century. She was Russian, but went to Germany
to study with Weierstrass. She made contributions in the area of
analysis and applied math. There are a few recent serious biographies.
Emmy Noether, who was a student of Hilbert, and wrote papers with him.
She lived in Germany, but came to the US in the 1930's (taught at Bryn
Mawr). She worked in algebra, but Noetherian rings are named for her
father, Max, I believe.
To get more info, you could call the Association for Women in Math, at
Wellesley College. There's also been a lot of curriculum development
on 'women in math and science'. AWM might be able to point you to
some. The Math Assoc of America (in Washington DC) has a committee,
Women and Mathematics, that can provide information - may be hard to
get by Monday. And public libraries might have some material.
There are lots of contemporary women mathematicians, who are "famous"
(are mathematicians ever famous?) - Julia Robinson, Olga Taussky-Todd,
Karen Uhlenbeck, etc.
Martha
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| Article 13454 of sci.math:
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From: jgpropp@athena.mit.edu (James Propp)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info
Message-ID: <1990Nov16.153945.20011@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 16 Nov 90 15:39:45 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In article <67400040@ENH.Prime.COM> JRAMSDEN@ENH.Prime.COM writes:
>Firstly there was the head librarian of the library of Alexandria in
>the 6th century. I don't remember her name exactly, but it was
>something like Hypathia.
For more on Hypatia, see pages 102-107 of Edna Kramer's "The Nature and
Growth of Modern Mathematics", Volume 1.
Unfortunately, all of Hypatia's original scientific writings have been lost
(though commentaries on the Conics of Appolonius, the Almagest of Ptolemy,
and the Arithmetica of Diophantus are attributed to her).
Jim Propp
==================================================================
|| "It takes some mathematical sophistication ||
|| to see why this fact is not obvious." ||
==================================================================
Article 13511 of sci.math:
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From: srt@duke.cs.duke.edu (Stephen R. Tate)
Newsgroups: sci.math
Subject: Re: woman mathematician -- need info fo
Message-ID: <659034700@weevil.cs.duke.edu>
Date: 19 Nov 90 17:11:41 GMT
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Organization: Duke University Computer Science Dept.; Durham, N.C.
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In article <48517@cornell.UUCP> wayner@hermod.cs.cornell.edu (Peter Wayner) writes:
>daf@lear.ecs.ox.ac.uk (Dave Forsyth) writes:
>>Aren't Noetherian rings named for Max Noether, rather than Emmy Noether? He
>Nope, Emmy. Or at least that is what they taught me in Algebra Class.
I think that Noetherian rings are indeed named for Emmy Noether.
Incidentally, here's a quote of none other than Albert Einstein:
"In the judgment of the most competent living mathematicians,
Fraulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical
genius thus far produced since the higer education of women
began. In the realm of algebra, in which the most gifted
mathematicians have been busy for centuries, she discovered
methods which have proved of enormous importance in the
development of the present-day younger generation of mathematicians."
That quote came from one of the biographical blurbs in Gallian's
abstract algebra book --- the book actually has quite a few interesting
biographical entries on famous mathematicians.
--
Steve Tate srt@duke.cs.duke.edu
Dept. of Computer Science
Duke University
Durham, NC 27706
|