▲ Covers of the editions; can be downloaded for free on taken from this site
Daniel López Aguilar
Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday August 23, 2023, p. 6
Four outstanding women in the field of mathematics star in the first publications of a scientific and children’s collection carried out by researchers from the Millennium Nucleus Stochastic Models of Complex and Disordered Systems of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
The books, dedicated to Emmy Noether (1882-1935), Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), Olga Oleinik (1925-2001) and Sofya Kovalévskaya (1850-1891), can be downloaded for free on the website
In the world there are extraordinary people who have been able to be visionaries and illuminate the path of many generations. The initiative is intended to tell stories of women who have excelled in mathematics. We invite you to learn about his ingenious, tireless and rebellious life, as indicated in each of the publications, illustrated by Paloma Valdivia Barria and Magdalena Pérez.
Amalie Emmy Noether was born in the city of Erlangen, Germany. As a child, she learned all the female trades of the time; she played the piano and spoke German, English and French perfectly. However, what she was really passionate about was far from what women of her time used to do.
Since she was little, Emmy (as her close friends called her) was attracted to numbers more than anything else. In fact, there were 10 mathematicians in her family, including her father. Although her grades were not the best, she was characterized by having a great logical capacity.
When she left school she received a certificate to be a French teacher in girls’ schools, but what she wanted was to study mathematics at the University of Erlangen, where her father taught.
Maryam Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, Iran. At 8 years old, she was already dreaming big: every night before she fell asleep, she imagined stories about a girl destined to achieve incredible feats.
Sometimes he traveled the world and climbed to the top of Everest; at other times she was a doctor who found a cure for a terrible disease. Despite the hard times of the war between her country and Iraq, little Maryam had a happy childhood with her parents and her three brothers.
She also read whatever she could find and was fascinated by watching TV shows about Marie Curie, Hellen Keller, and other women passionate about their work.
numbers and formulas
Olga Oleinik’s life was marked by separations and feuding countries. Originally from the Ukraine, she from her childhood showed a natural talent for numbers and formulas; she knew how to shine in a gray world and become an outstanding and renowned mathematical researcher who knew no limits between countries at war in the 20th century.
With his character and dedication, he managed to make friends in various nations around the world at a time in history when people from different horizons were not allowed to come together and work together.
Sofya Kovalevskaya, born in Moscow, was the first female professor at a European university. At 13, she stole an algebra book from one of her teachers and at night she would light a candle and hide under the covers to study.
She was not only an extraordinary scientist, but also a revolutionary and feminist woman who defended ideals that were far ahead of her time.
In an interview for the Chilean media, Gregorio Moreno, adjunct researcher at the Millennium Nucleus…, stated that “everyone knows (Albert) Einstein and knows what the Big Bang.
These are things that have sold very well or are very attractive to a wide audience. But in the case of mathematics, there is a huge lack of knowledge. Showing these referents and the evolution of this science, which deals with interesting things and which has repercussions, has also been an objective, in addition to considering it from a gender perspective, he concluded.
On its official page, the Millennium Nucleus Stochastic Models of Complex and Disordered Systems of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile explains that its purpose is “to study fundamental questions in the stochastic modeling of complex and disordered systems that appear in the areas of natural sciences , social sciences and engineering.
We focus on problems in the areas of random media, random interfaces, interacting particle systems, random polymers, and the KPZ (Kardar-Parisi-Zhang) universality class. Our group brings together four associate researchers, three junior researchers, two postdocs, five doctoral students, and three master’s students.
2023-08-24 00:49:43
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