Sofia Vasílievna Kovalévskaya

She was born in Moscow in 1850. Her parents encouraged her interest in culture and from a very young age, she showed a great talent for Mathematics.

At that time, women were not allowed access to university in Russia, so she had to emigrate. She married a palaeontology student, Vladimir Kovalevsky, with whom she left Russia in 1867.

She studied, with special permits, at Heidelberg and Berlin universities. In 1969, she received her doctorate at the University of Göttingen, where she presented three papers: on differential equations (Cauchy–Kovalevsky theorem), on elliptic integrals and on the dynamics of Saturn's rings.

In 1884 she obtained a professorship for five years at the University of Stockholm. In 1888 the French Academy of Sciences awarded her the Bordin Prize for her work on the rotation of a solid body.

In 1889 she obtained the post of permanent professor at the University of Stockholm. Although she never obtained a professorship in Russia, she was appointed an academic of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She passed in 1891.