Corina (Cora) Eloísa Ratto de Sadosky (aka Cora Ratto, 1912–1981) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

and militant

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

in support of

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

in Argentina and beyond. She played an important part in the

Argentine University Federation The Argentine University Federation (; FUA) is the most important student organization in Argentina. The FUA was created on April 11, 1918, within the University Reform student movement originated in Córdoba, which later spread through Latin Am ...

supporting republican interests during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

and helping victims of

Falangist Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...

oppression. In 1941, following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, she established and headed the anti-fascist

Junta de la Victoria Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by a ...

which stood for democracy and

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. In 1965, Ratto founded ''Columna 10'', a journal denouncing the conduct of the United States in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. In the 1970s, she published a series of important mathematics text books.

Academic career

Born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

on 3 January 1912, Corina (Cora) Eloísa Ratto was the daughter of Livio Benito Ratto and Francisca Butta. Brought up in a middle-class family of Italian origin, in the 1930s she graduated in mathematics from the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

. After

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...

had been overthrown, she was able to complete her doctorate under

Mischa Cotlar 250px, Mischa Cotlar in 1964 Mischa Cotlar (1913, Sarny, Russian Empire – January 16, 2007, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was a mathematician who started his scientific career in Uruguay and worked most of his life on it in Argentina and Venezuela. ...

in 1959 with her thesis ''Conditions of Continuity of Generalized Potential Operators with Hyperbolic Metric''. While a student in the 1930s, she played a major role in the Argentine student organization Federación Universitaria Argentina. She supported republican interests during the

and helped victims of Falangist oppression. She denounced the

Chaco War The Chaco War (, Manuel Sadosky Manuel Sadosky (April 13, 1914 – June 18, 2005) was an Argentine mathematician, civil servant and author who was born in Buenos Aires to Jewish Russian immigrants who had fled the pogroms in Europe.Jacovkis, Pablo (2015). "MANUEL SADOSKY Y SU IM ...

(1914–2005) with whom she had one child,

Cora Sadosky Cora Susana Sadosky de Goldstein (May 23, 1940 – December 3, 2010) was an Argentine mathematician and Professor of Mathematics at Howard University. Early life and education Sadosky was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the daughter of mathem ...

(1940–2010), who also became a prominent mathematician and was president of the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

in the mid-1990s. After the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in the early 1940s Ratto established and headed the women's organization La Junta de la Victoria (The Victory Union) to promote democracy and provide support for the anti-Nazi war effort, including clothing and food for the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

. By 1945, it had some 50,000 members, making it the first significant women's organization in South America. The organization also served to encourage its members to fight for votes for women. After the war, the family moved to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

where Ratto and her husband furthered their studies in France and Italy. Thereafter they returned to Argentina which was in political turmoil. Ratto worked in a commercial firm to sustain the family. In 1956

universities in Argentina Universities in Argentina (National and Provincial) are public, tuition-free and state funded, while private universities require some form of tuition payment. Public universities National universities Provincial universities Private u ...

regained their academic autonomy. Ratto and her husband returned to join a team which built the modern school of science at the

. In 1965, Ratto founded ''Columna 10'', a journal denouncing the conduct of the United States in the

. In the 1970s, she published a series of important mathematics text books in Spanish, including ''Introducción al álgebra: nociones de álgebra lineal'' (together with Misha Coltar) and ''Material formativo para docentes de matemática del nivel secundario''. Threatened by the anti-communist organization Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, Ratto left Argentina in 1974, first moving to

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, then to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. She died in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

on 2 January 1981. On 6 November 2020, a satellite named after her ( ÑuSat 11 or "Cora", COSPAR 2020-079C) was launched into space.

Selected publications

* Mischa Cotlar, Cora Ratto de Sadosky, ''Introduction to algebra: notions of linear algebra''. (1962). Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, ed. * Archimedes, Cora Ratto de Sadosky, ''El método'' (in Spanish) (1966). Buenos Aires: Eudeba.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratto de Sadosky, Cora 1912 births 1981 deaths Activists from Buenos Aires Academics from Buenos Aires 20th-century Argentine mathematicians Argentine women mathematicians Argentine human rights activists Argentine women human rights activists Argentine women's rights activists University of Buenos Aires alumni Women's International Democratic Federation people