Vera Myller-Lebedev (1 December 1880 – 12 December 1970) was a Russian-born

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 ...

who earned her doctorate in Germany with

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental idea ...

and became the first female university professor in Romania.

Education

Vera Lebedev was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and educated in

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

. From 1897 through 1902 she participated in the

Bestuzhev Courses The Bestuzhev Courses () in Saint Petersburg were the largest and most prominent women's higher education institution in Imperial Russia. The institute opened its doors in 1878. It was named after Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the first director ...

in Saint Petersburg. She then traveled to 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 ...

, where she completed a doctorate in 1906 under the supervision of

. Her dissertation was ''Die Theorie der Integralgleichungen in Anwendungen auf einige Reihenentwickelungen'', and concerned

integral equation In mathematical analysis, integral equations are equations in which an unknown function appears under an integral sign. In mathematical notation, integral equations may thus be expressed as being of the form: f(x_1,x_2,x_3,\ldots,x_n ; u(x_1,x_2 ...

Marriage and career

In Göttingen, she met Romanian mathematician . She married him in 1907, moved with him to Romania, enrolled in the

University of Iași The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in , Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former was converted to a university, the University of , as it was named ...

, and in 1910 joined the mathematics faculty there. In 1918 she was promoted to full professor, becoming Romania's first female professor. She died in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

in 1970, and is buried at the city's Eternitatea Cemetery.

Contributions

She wrote Romanian-language textbooks on algebra (1942) and algebraic applications of

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

(1945), and won the Romanian State Prize in 1953 for her algebra text.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myller, Vera 1880 births 1970 deaths Mathematicians from the Russian Empire 20th-century Romanian mathematicians Romanian textbook writers Academic staff of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University University of Göttingen alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Romania Women textbook writers Scientists from Saint Petersburg Burials at Eternitatea cemetery