Time Tunnel: Emmy Noether earned her Ph.D. in mathematics
On December 13, 1907, the German Amalie Emmy Noether (1882-1935) earned her Ph.D. in mathematics, summa cum laude (the highest degree of honors), from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, after presenting a dissertation on algebraic invariants, under the guidance of Paul Gordan.
Read more: Linares e Morris são eleitos para Academia Brasileira de Ciências
IMPA conquista Prêmio Jatobá de Comunicação Corporativa
Prêmio Capes de Tese celebra trabalho de doutor do IMPA
Born in Bavaria in 1882, her father was also a mathematician. At the age of 18, she decided to study the discipline at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Her insistence and her father’s influence allowed her to be accepted to attend classes on listener status, since she was a woman. But the talent stood out and the University authorized her to begin her doctorate as an official student, becoming the second woman to earn that degree in Mathematics.
Later she worked at the Erlangen’s Mathematical Institute for free for seven years and excelled with his theories on rings, bodies and algebra. Invited to join the Department of Mathematics at the University of Göttingen, she had to use the pseudonym of David Hilbert to teach because it did not accept a woman taking the post publicly. The recognition came only in 1931, when Dutch colleague B. van der Waerden expounded her ideas as the basis of his textbook “Moderne Algebra”. From there, Emmy Noether came to be considered the creator of modern algebra. She died at the age of 53, in 1935, from ovarian cancer.
