Livilla: Welcome to The Sound of Science on WNIJ. I’m Livilla from NIU STEM Outreach. Natalie will accompany me today as we explore women in the STEM field, such as pioneering mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya.
Natalie: The name Sofia Kovalevskaya may not sound too familiar, but she was a mathematician and a writer who greatly contributed to the theory of partial differential equations, a form of mathematics that theorizes that there is an equation for anything as long as you have your starting conditions to solve for your end result. This can be used to model rates of change or diffusion of chemicals.
Livilla: Born in Moscow in the mid 1800’s, she was anxious and withdrawn as a child, yet that did not stop her from pursuing her interest in science and math. She studied her father’s old calculus notes, and even taught herself trigonometry in order to understand the optics section of a physics book she was reading.
Natalie: The author was actually her neighbor, and he convinced her father to allow her to go to school. As a young, single woman, she had to marry before she could travel, so she got hitched out of convenience and began studying in St. Petersburg in 1868.
Livilla: After years of hard work, she became the first woman in modern Europe to gain a doctorate in mathematics, the first woman to join the editorial board of a scientific journal, the first woman to be appointed professor of mathematics, and the first woman to be elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Natalie: She authored papers on partial differential equations, on Saturn's rings, and on elliptic integrals. Her contributions to the field won her valuable recognition within the European mathematical community.
Livilla: On top of revolutionizing mathematics, she was a writer, composing plays, novels, and essays. She was even a champion of radical political causes and advocated for women's rights so that young women passionate about math and science wouldn’t have to marry just to study or travel.
Natalie: Dr. Kovalesvskaya once said, “It seems to me that the poet has only to perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others look. And the mathematician must do the same thing..."
Livilla: Sofia was a deep and inspiring woman who changed the face of mathematics. Come back next week where we take a look at other female figures in STEM here on The Sound of Science on WNIJ…
Natalie: Where you learn something new every day.
