Emmy Noether
1882-1935
1882-1935
Emmy was born in Germany in 1882. Her father, Max Noether, was a professor of mathematics at Erlangen. During this time, women were unofficially allowed to study at university, so she attended lectures given by her father. In December 1907 she received her Ph.D. in mathematics. She then worked for no salary at the University of Erlangen, doing research and lecturing (Noether 1987).
During WW1 (1916) Klein and Hilbert invited Emmy to help in defining one of Einstein's theories at the University of Gottingen. She accepted and soon afterwards began lecturing unofficially. It was not until 1919 that she formally became an academic lecturer. She quickly accumulated a small following of students known as Noether's boys. Many of these students went on to become great mathematicians (Taylor 1995).
Emmy helped to alter the face of algebra. She is best known for her contributions to a part of algebra called abstract algebra. Abstract algebra is completely different from the early algebra of equation solving, as it deals with the formal properties of equations, such as associativity, commutativity and distributivity properties (ed. Gillispie 1970 p.138).
Emmy did her greatest work later in life. It was not until 1920, when she was 38, that her true talents were acknowledged. This was after she coauthored a paper on differential operators, which showed her strong interest in the conceptual axiomatic approach (Noether 1987).
Emmy wrote about 45 research papers. However, much of her work also appears in papers written by her colleagues and students. She became the inspiration for many students, who made their own contributions to mathematics, in particular B.L. van der Waerden. In 1924 van der Waerden wrote a book Moderne Algebra, in two volumes. The second volume consists mainly of Emmy's work (ed. Gillispie 1970).
Noether's work was fundamental, generating many ideas which continue to suggest research problems of great importance. She is considered to be the most influential woman mathematician of the early twentieth century and the greatest mathematician up to her time. Emmy died suddenly in 1935, at the age of 53, following an operation (ed. Gillispie 1970).
Gillispie, C.C. (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol.10, New York: Charles Scribner, 1970.
Noether, G.E., 'Emmy Noether (1882-1935)', in Women of Mathematics A Biobibliographic Sourcebook , eds. L.S. Grinstein & P.J. Campbell, New York: Greenwood Press, pp.165-170, 1987.
Taylor, M., Citing Computer References [Online, accessed 13 Oct. 1996]. URL.http://www.scotlsn.edu/lriddle/women/kovalevskaya.htm, 1995.
Written by Julie Boyd
(University of South Australia, 1996)