Subodh Mahanti

Sofia Kovalevsky was the first major Russian woman mathematician. She is also known as Sophia Kovalevsky, Sonya Kovalevsky, Sonya Kovalevskaya, Sofya Kovalevskaya, Sofia Kovalevskaia, and Sonia Kovalevskya. She herself used Sofia Kowalevski or occasionally Kowalevsky for her academic publications. 

She is best known for her work in partial differential equations in which she extended some earlier results of the great French mathematician Baron Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857). The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists (2002) commenting on Kovalevsky’s work wrote: “Her work in mathematical analysis ranks her as the leading woman mathematician before the 20th century, with her major contributions being on partial differential equations and on Abelian functions. In applied mathematics she worked on the structure of Saturn’s rings, on propagation of light, and notably on the rotation of solid body about a fixed point.”

She also wrote novels, plays and essays besides her two autobiographical works namely, Memoirs of Childhood (1890) and The Nihilist Woman (1892). She was drawn towards literature in her childhood. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), the famous Russian novelist, was a regular visitor to her family…Read more on NOPR