Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850–1891) was a Russian mathematician and a mechanical engineer; since 1889, a foreign corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. She was the first woman professor of mathematics around the world.
In 1866, Sofya Kovalevskaya, having settled in St. Petersburg, took lessons in mathematical analysis from A. Strannoliubskii, a student of the Naval Academy, Lieutenant of the Fleet.
It was forbidden for women to enter higher educational institutions in Russia; hence, Kovalevskaya could only continue her studies abroad. In 1869, she began studying at the University of Heidelberg. In 1870-1874, she took private lessons from Karl Weierstrass, a professor at the University of Berlin. In 1874, Sofya Kovalevskaya received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics and Master of Fine Arts “with the highest praise” at the University of Göttingen for the defense of her dissertation “On the Theory of Differential Equations” without the usual examination and public defense for the highest level of mathematical research.
In 1881, she was elected a member of the Moscow Mathematical Society as a privat-docent. On January 30 of 1884, Kovalevskaya gave her first lecture at the Stockholm University, and on June 24 of 1884, she was appointed to a five-year position as Extraordinary Professor. In 1888, she received the Bordin Prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for the discovery of the third classical case of solvability of the problem of the motion of a solid around a fixed point. In 1889, she received the 1,500 kroner prize of King Oscar II from the Swedish Academy of Sciences for the continuation of this subject and became a permanent Ordinary Professor at the Stockholm University.
On November 7, 1889, Sofya Kovalevskaya was elected a Corresponding Member of the Physics and Mathematics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The postage stamp provides a portrait of Sofya Kovalevskaya, a Kovalevskaya top and formulae illustrating the study of the rotation of a heavy asymmetric body around a fixed point.
| Paper |
Printing method |
Perforation |
Format of the stamp |
Edition |
| Chalk surfaced |
Offset + security system |
Comb 11¼ |
37 × 37 mm |
72 thousand stamps |