Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya

1850-1891

Russian mathematician who, despite the limitations imposed upon women scientists of her time, made major contributions to the studies of partial differential equations, celestial mechanics, and the studies of rigid bodies.

Married to paleontologist Vladimir Kovalevsky in order to travel abroad to study, she impressed her professors with her extraordinary talents in mathematics. Unfortunately, she died of influenza and pneumonia at the age of 41, at the height of her career.