Ewa Ligocka (13 October 1947 – 28 October 2022) was a Polish mathematician specializing in

complex analysis Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic ...

, and a political activist.

Early life and education

Ligocka was born in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

on 13 October 1947, the daughter of Polish photography critic and historian Alfred Ligocki. As a high school student under the tutelage of , she competed for Poland in the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...

in 1965. She earned a master's degree at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

in 1970, and completed a Ph.D. there in 1973 under the supervision of . During this period, her research concerned the theory of

analytic function In mathematics, an analytic function is a function that is locally given by a convergent power series. There exist both real analytic functions and complex analytic functions. Functions of each type are infinitely differentiable, but complex ...

s on

topological vector space In mathematics, a topological vector space (also called a linear topological space and commonly abbreviated TVS or t.v.s.) is one of the basic structures investigated in functional analysis. A topological vector space is a vector space that is als ...

s. The story goes that, in 1972, she plucked and cooked the goose given to Per Enflo as the prize for solving Mazur's goose problem.

Career and later life

After completing her doctorate, Ligocka continued as a researcher at the University of Warsaw. As an assistant professor in 1976, she signed an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

regarding the June 1976 Polish protests in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

and Ursus. Despite the efforts of other mathematicians to protect her, this act of protest led to her transfer to a branch campus of the university in

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

, and then to her dismissal from the university in 1977. Meanwhile, she had begun working with Maciej Skwarczyński on the

Bergman kernel In the mathematical study of several complex variables, the Bergman kernel, named after Stefan Bergman, is the reproducing kernel for the Hilbert space ( RKHS) of all square integrable holomorphic functions on a domain ''D'' in C''n''. In det ...

. By 1978 she began her research with

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

student Steven R. Bell on Feferman's theorem on the smooth extension of biholomorphisms to the boundaries of their domains. This work, which was published in ''

Inventiones Mathematicae ''Inventiones Mathematicae'' is a mathematical journal published monthly by Springer Science+Business Media. It was established in 1966 and is regarded as one of the most prestigious mathematics journals in the world. The current (2023) managing ...

'' in 1980, had already created a stir in Polish mathematics in the late 1970s, and in 1979 she was hired by

Czesław Olech Czesław Olech (22 May 1931 – 1 July 2015) was a Polish mathematician. He was a representative of the Kraków school of mathematics, especially the differential equations school of Tadeusz Ważewski. Education and career In 1954 he complete ...

as a researcher at the

Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences The Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences ( Polish: ''Instytut Matematyczny Polskiej Akademii Nauk'') is a research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) headquartered in Warsaw at 8 Śniadeckich Street.

, without any political restrictions. Ligocka completed a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in 1986, and in 1992 she returned to the University of Warsaw as an associate professor. She was given the degree of professor in 1994. She retired in 2008, and died on 28 October 2022.

Recognition

Ligocka was the 1986 recipient of the Stanisław Zaremba Grand Prize of the

Polish Mathematical Society The Polish Mathematical Society () is the main professional society of Polish mathematicians and represents Polish mathematics within the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU). History The society was ...

. She and Steven R. Bell received the 1991

Stefan Bergman Prize The Stefan Bergman Prize is a mathematics award, funded by the estate of the widow of mathematician Stefan Bergman and supported by the American Mathematical Society. The award is granted for mathematical research in: "1) the theory of the kernel ...

of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

, given for their work on the Feferman–Vaught theorem.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ligocka, Ewa 20th-century Polish mathematicians 21st-century Polish mathematicians Polish women mathematicians Mathematical analysts Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Academic staff of the Polish Academy of Sciences University of Warsaw alumni International Mathematical Olympiad participants People from Katowice 1947 births 2022 deaths