Emmy Noether.

Emmy Noether was born in Erlangen, Germany on March 23, 1882. She was named Amalie, but always called “Emmy”. She was the eldest of four children.She spent her time in school studying languages, with a concentration on French and English. Her mother taught her the traditional skills of a young woman of that time. She learned to cook, clean, and play the clavier. At the time of her graduation from high school, she passed a test that allowed her to teach both French and English at schools for young women.

To enroll in a university, she had to get permission of the professors to take an entrance exam — she did and she passed, after sitting in on mathematics lectures at the University of Erlangen. She was then allowed to audit courses.

Next the University of Göttingen, neither of which would permit a woman to attend classes for credit. Finally, in 1904, the University of Erlangen decided to permit women to enroll as regular students, and Emmy Noether returned there. Her dissertation in algebraic math earned her a doctorate summa cum laude in 1908.

 

After five more years of study, she was granted the second degree to a woman in the field of mathematics. The first graduated a year earlier. When Emmy Noether had her doctorate in mathematics, she was ready to find a job teaching. The University of Erlangen would not hire her, as they had a policy against women professors. She decided to help her father at the Mathematics Institute in Erlangen. She began doing research there, and helped her father by teaching his classes when he was sick. Soon, she began to publish papers on her work.

After the war ended in 1918, the German monarchy was removed and the country became a republic. Noether, and all women in Germany, were given the right to vote for the first time. Even with the new rights granted to women, Noether was not paid for her work teaching.

During this time, Felix Klein and David Hilbert were working on further defining one of Einstein’s theories at the University of Gottingen. They felt that Emmy Noether’s expertise could help them in their work. They asked her to come and join then, but since there were no women on the faculty, Noether was unsure if she would be welcome.

Many of the faculty did not want her there, but in the end, she came. She worked hard and soon was given a job as a lecturer. Even though she still was not paid for her efforts, for the first time, Noether was teaching under her own name. Three years later, she began receiving a small salary for her work.

Emmy Noether taught at Bryn Mawr College until her death in 1935. Teaching at a women’s college was very different for Noether. For the first time, she had colleagues that were women.Emmy Noether made many contributions to the field of mathematics. She spent her time studying abstract algebra, with special attention to rings, groups, and fields. Because of her unique look on topics, she was able to see relationships that traditional algebra experts could not. She published over 40 papers in her lifetime. She was also a teacher that was able to inspire her students to make their own contributions to the field of mathematics.