1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello Again. I'm Eves and you're listening to 3 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:10,879 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, a show where we drop 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: history knowledge every single day. Today is January. The day 5 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:31,880 Speaker 1: was January eighteen fifty. Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya was born 6 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 1: in Moscow, Russia. Kovalevskaya was the first woman to get 7 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: a modern doctorate in mathematics. She was the second of 8 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,239 Speaker 1: three children, born into a family of wealthy Russian aristocrats. 9 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: Her father was an artillery general in the Russian Army, 10 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,320 Speaker 1: so the family had to move a lot when she 11 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: was young, but when she was around six years old, 12 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: the family settled at an estate near Russia's border with Lithuania. There, 13 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 1: Kovalavskaya learned under her English governess and Polish tutor. She 14 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: was good at and enjoyed writing, and even though too 15 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 1: much intellectual stimulation was deemed unhealthy for girls at the time, 16 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,639 Speaker 1: she read books that were in her family's library. In fact, 17 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: she said that her father had a quote strong prejudice 18 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:20,280 Speaker 1: against learned women, and when she was caught with books 19 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: he punished her. Still, she continued her studies and though 20 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: she wasn't the best at math. Initially, Sophia had a 21 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: lot of scholars and mathematicians and her family lineage. By 22 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 1: the time she was fifteen, she had garnered more interest 23 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: and proficiency in mathematics. She began taking lessons from a 24 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: mathematician at the Naval school in St. Petersburg. But even 25 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: though she clearly had a talent for mathematics, she could 26 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: not continue her education in Russia since women were not 27 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: allowed to attend higher education institutions. Sophia was able to 28 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: attend lectures by academics, but she wanted to go to 29 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: school abroad, something her father not support. But she needed 30 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: to get permission to study abroad from her father or 31 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:07,920 Speaker 1: a husband, so she decided to pursue her goal by 32 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: getting married to a man named Vladimir Kovalevskaya, a paleontology 33 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:15,920 Speaker 1: student at the University of Moscow. The agreement was that 34 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:18,920 Speaker 1: the marriage was a platonic one. They married in eight 35 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 1: The next year they moved to Heidelberg, Germany. There, Vladimir 36 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: studied geology and Sophia took math classes at the university. 37 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: Her professors had been students of the mathematician Karl T. Weierstrass, 38 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: so Sophia traveled to Berlin to study with him herself. 39 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: Her husband stayed behind. The university there forbade women from 40 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: attending bier Stress's formal lectures, but Bierstrass agreed to teach 41 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,320 Speaker 1: her privately, and he did so for the next few years. 42 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: Kovalevskaya ended up writing three doctoral dissertations, and Bierstrass submitted 43 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: her work to the University of Gottingen. The dissertation on 44 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: the theory of partial differential equations, which expanded on ideas 45 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:08,080 Speaker 1: first posed by mathematician Augustin Louis Kushi, is considered the 46 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:12,079 Speaker 1: most important of the dissertations. She got her doctorate degree 47 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four, but she still had trouble getting 48 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: a teaching position, so she went back to Russia to 49 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: live with her husband. They had a child, and for 50 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,960 Speaker 1: a while they put aside their academic work, but Vladimir 51 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,800 Speaker 1: died by suicide in eighteen eighty three, and soon Kovalevskaya 52 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: began working as a lecturer in mathematics in Stockholm. She 53 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:39,280 Speaker 1: taught about inverse functions, elliptical integrals, and Abelian functions, and 54 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: she also wrote more papers. Some of which won her awards. 55 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: She earned a lifetime professorship at the University of Stockholm, 56 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: and she was the first female mathematician to hold a 57 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:54,240 Speaker 1: chair at a European university. In her later years, Kovalevskaya 58 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,680 Speaker 1: pursued a career in writing, authoring a play and novels. 59 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,120 Speaker 1: She died of the flu called Located by pneumonia and one. 60 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: I'm Eve Jeff co and hopefully you know a little 61 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: more about history today than you two it yesterday. No 62 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: any fellow history buffs who would enjoy the show, you 63 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: can share it with them. 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