MATHEMATICIAN

Sofia Kovalevskaya

1850 - 1891

Photo of Sofia Kovalevskaya

Icon of person Sofia Kovalevskaya

Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (Russian: Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), born Korvin-Krukovskaya (15 January [O.S. 3 January] 1850 – 10 February 1891), was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer for women in mathematics around the world – the first woman to earn a doctorate (in the modern sense) in mathematics, the first woman appointed to a full professorship in northern Europe and one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor. According to historian of science Ann Hibner Koblitz, Kovalevskaya was "the greatest known woman scientist before the twentieth century".: 255  Historian of mathematics Roger Cooke writes: ... Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Sofia Kovalevskaya has received more than 424,619 page views. Her biography is available in 75 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 71 in 2019). Sofia Kovalevskaya is the 48th most popular mathematician (up from 53rd in 2019), the 100th most popular biography from Russia (up from 120th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Russian Mathematician.

Sofia Kovalevskaya is most famous for being the first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics. She was born in 1849 and received her degree from the University of Stockholm in 1874.

Memorability Metrics

  • 420k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 70.47

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 75

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 7.71

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.24

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, Sofia Kovalevskaya ranks 48 out of 1,004. Before her are George Boole, Charles Sanders Peirce, Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Archytas, and Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet. After her are Eudoxus of Cnidus, Brahmagupta, Sophie Germain, Karl Weierstrass, Philolaus, and Marin Mersenne.

Most Popular Mathematicians in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1850, Sofia Kovalevskaya ranks 7. Before her are Jack the Ripper, Guy de Maupassant, Robert Louis Stevenson, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Edward Smith, and Eduard Bernstein. After her are Karl Ferdinand Braun, Hermann Ebbinghaus, Charles Richet, Pierre Loti, Mihai Eminescu, and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Among people deceased in 1891, Sofia Kovalevskaya ranks 9. Before her are Georges Seurat, Helena Blavatsky, Herman Melville, Pedro II of Brazil, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, and Georges-Eugène Haussmann. After her are P. T. Barnum, Léo Delibes, Wilhelm Eduard Weber, Theo van Gogh, Leopold Kronecker, and Prince Napoléon Bonaparte.

Others Born in 1850

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1891

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Sofia Kovalevskaya ranks 100 out of 3,761. Before her are Alexis of Russia (1629), Nikolai Bukharin (1888), Ivan VI of Russia (1740), Ivan Konev (1897), Alexander Glazunov (1865), and Lev Kamenev (1883). After her are Alexander Alekhine (1892), Mikhail Tukhachevsky (1893), Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857), Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869), Tokhtamysh (1342), and Ilya Prigogine (1917).

Others born in Russia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among MATHEMATICIANS In Russia

Among mathematicians born in Russia, Sofia Kovalevskaya ranks 3. Before her are David Hilbert (1862), and Georg Cantor (1845). After her are Nikolai Lobachevsky (1792), Andrey Kolmogorov (1903), Alexander Friedmann (1888), Grigori Perelman (1966), Christian Goldbach (1690), Leonid Kantorovich (1912), Andrey Markov (1856), Aleksandr Lyapunov (1857), and Nikolay Bogolyubov (1909).

Russian born Mathematicians

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous