0000000000139821
AUTHOR
Mechthild Koreuber
Diving into Math with Emmy Noether
Some 100 years ago a notice appeared in the journal of the German Mathematical Society that read: “Dr. Emmy Noether has habilitated as a lecturer in mathematics at Gottingen University.” This quiet announcement was actually the resounding final chord in a long struggle that went on for four years and only ended on June 4, 1919, when Noether joined the Gottingen faculty.
Emmy Noether: a Portrait
“I always went my own way in teaching and research,” Emmy Noether once wrote toward the end of her life.
Max and Emmy Noether: Mathematics in Erlangen
Until 1933, most of Emmy Noether’s life was spent in two middle-sized cities: Erlangen, her birthplace, and Gottingen, where she began her mathematical career.
Noether’s Early Contributions to Modern Algebra
As described in preceding chapters, Noether’s work on invariant theory broke new ground that led the Gottingen mathematicians, but first and foremost Hilbert, to invite her to habilitate there.
Emmy Noether’s Triumphal Years
When Emmy Noether returned from the September 1929 conference in Prague – where she and Hasse surely spoke about their mutual mathematical interests – she belatedly answered a postcard he had sent here.
Emmy Noether in Bryn Mawr
In the annals of higher education for women, two elite colleges were particularly important for mathematics: Girton College, in Cambridge, England and Bryn Mawr College, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Emmy Noether’s Long Struggle to Habilitate in Göttingen
Doctoral degrees have a long prehistory, but the modern Ph.D. first arose as part of an educational reform launched at the German universities. Over the course of the nineteenth century, this degree came to be awarded not merely to those who displayed a command of established knowledge in an academic field.
Noether’s International School in Modern Algebra
Pavel Alexandrov and Heinz Hopf met for the first time in Gottingen in the spring of 1926, soon after Alexandrov departed from Blaricum. Hopf had recently taken his doctorate in Berlin under Ludwig Bieberbach and Erhard Schmidt, and his research interests differed sharply from Alexandrov’s work in general topology.
Cast out of her Country
When Pavel Alexandrov wrote about his last visit to Gottingen some four decades later, he could hardly look past the traumatic events that were to follow in the wake of his departure.