Charlotte Bolette Sophie, Baroness Wedell-Wedellsborg (27 January 1862 – 22 July 1953) was one of four women mathematicians to attend the inaugural

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

, held in Zurich in 1897. Wedell was originally from

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, the daughter of (of the Wedel noble family) and Louise Marie Sophie, Countess Schulin, and the granddaughter of . At the time of the Congress, in 1897, she had just completed a doctorate at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, with

Adolf Hurwitz Adolf Hurwitz (; 26 March 1859 – 18 November 1919) was a German mathematician who worked on algebra, mathematical analysis, analysis, geometry and number theory. Early life He was born in Hildesheim, then part of the Kingdom of Hanover, to a ...

as an unofficial mentor. The subject of her dissertation was the application of

elliptic function In the mathematical field of complex analysis, elliptic functions are special kinds of meromorphic functions, that satisfy two periodicity conditions. They are named elliptic functions because they come from elliptic integrals. Those integrals are ...

s to the construction of the Malfatti circles. At the congress, Wedell was listed as being affiliated with the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. The other three women at the congress were Iginia Massarini, Vera von Schiff, and

Charlotte Scott Charlotte Angas Scott (8 June 1858 – 10 November 1931) was a British mathematician who made her career in the United States; she was influential in the development of American mathematics, including the mathematical education of women. Scott ...

. None were speakers; the first Congress with a woman as a speaker was in 1912. Wedell married engineer Eugène Tomasini in Copenhagen in 1898; they divorced in 1909.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedell, Charlotte 1862 births 1953 deaths Danish mathematicians Danish women mathematicians University of Lausanne alumni Danish barons Danish expatriates in Switzerland Wedel family