Hedvig Louise Beata Petrén-Overton (August 12, 1880 – January 14, 1977) was a Swedish mathematician, the first woman in Sweden with a doctorate in mathematics.

Early life and education

Louise Petrén was one of twelve children of the vicar of

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

. Her father had earned a doctorate in mathematics in 1850, and her great-uncle had been a professor of mathematics at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

. One of her brothers was physician and researcher Karl Anders Petrén. With two older sisters doing the housework, she was left free to concentrate on her studies. As a child, ill with

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

, she told her family that she would not go to heaven unless she could bring her mathematics books there. She earned an education certificate through private tutoring in 1899, and earned a bachelor's degree at

in 1902, as one of roughly a dozen women at the university and the only one in the sciences. She earned a

licenciate A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels. The Licentiate (Pontifical Degree) is a post graduate degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universitie ...

in 1910 and defended her doctorate at Lund in 1911, with the dissertation ''Extension de la méthode de Laplace aux équations''.

Contributions

Nail H. Ibragimov writes that Petrén "made a profound contribution to the constructive integration theory of partial differential equations in the direction initiated by Euler and continued by Laplace, Legendre, Imschenetsky, Darboux, Goursat. In her PhD thesis she extended to higher-order equations Laplace’s method of integration of second-order linear hyperbolic equations with two independent variables."

Later life

Petrén married

Ernest Overton Charles Ernest Overton (1865–1933) was a British and Swedish physiologist and biologist, now regarded as a pioneer of the theory of the cell membrane. In the last years of the 19th century Overton did experimental work, allowing the distinctio ...

, a professor at Lund, but as a woman could not obtain a position there herself. Instead she became a part-time schoolteacher and

actuary An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require investment management, asset management, ...

, and raised a family of four children.

Early life and education

Contributions

Later life

References

Further reading