Emmy Noether was a world-renowned mathematician whose innovative approach to modern abstract algebra inspired colleagues and students who emulated her technique. Dismissed from her university position at the beginning of the Nazi era in Germany--for she was both Jewish and female--Noether emigrated to the United States, where she taught in several universities and colleges. When she died, Albert Einstein eulogized her in a letter to New York Times as "the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began."

Noether was born on March 23, 1882, in the small university town of Erlangen in southern Germany. Her first name was Amalie, but she was known by her middle name of Emmy. Her mother, Ida Amalia Kaufmann Noether, came from a wealthy family in Cologne. Her father, Max Noether, a professor at the University of Erlangen, was an accomplished mathematician who worked on the theory...