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Noether won the Alfred Ackermann-Teubner Memorial Prize for the Advancement of Mathematical Knowledge in 1932. As is common practice in honoring important mathematicians, a crater on the moon is named after her.
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In the judgement of the most competent living mathematicians, Fraulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.
--Albert Einstein, letter to the New York Times, May 4, 1935
The eldest child and only daughter of noted mathematician Max Noether, Amalie "Emmy" Noether was born in Erlangen, Germany, on March 23, 1882. Noether, along with her three brothers, grew up in a house where education was valued. As was the custom of the day for those girls who received an education, Noether attended a finishing school for girls, since girls were not allowed to attend college preparatory schools. She studied English, French, arithmetic, and piano, originally with the goal of becoming a language teacher.
Although by 1900 she had become certified to teach French and English in schools for girls, Noether decided she wanted to attend the university and study mathematics. However, just as females were not allowed to attend college preparatory schools at that time, they were not allowed to enroll officially in universities. Noether got around this roadblock by obtaining special permission from individual professors to audit classes at the University of Erlangen, where her father taught. At one point, she was one of two women in the entire university. In 1903 she went to study at the University of Gottingen. She returned to Erlangen in 1904 when she was finally admitted to the university there. She received her Ph.D. summa cum laude in 1907 with her thesis on algebraic invariants.
Despite her research and achievements, the academic world was still a "men's club," and Noether struggled to find her place in that club. She worked in numerous unpaid positions, all the while continuing her own research. She assisted her father in his work at Erlangen, and then--again circumventing the rules, this time against allowing women to teach in the university--she lectured under another professor's name at Gottingen until she received an associate professorship there in 1922.
In addition to teaching, she continued to do research and made groundbreaking contributions to the fields of both physics and math. In physics, she produced a body of work, often called Noether's Theorem, that concerned laws of conservation. Her work played a part in the development of Einstein's theory of general relativity. In mathematics, her work in group theory, ring theory, group representations, and number theory provided the foundation for modern abstract algebra.
Noether was Jewish, and in 1933, after the Nazis assumed power in Germany, all Jewish professors were dismissed. With her life now in danger, Noether's friends helped her get out of Germany and secure a position as a visiting professor at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and a lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She lectured and continued her research until her death in 1935.
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Emmy Noether ()
This biography includes a mathematical explanation of her work in ring theory as well as a description of her relationships with other famous scientists.
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Emmy Noether ()
This short biography, from the Association for Women in Mathematics, features quotes from her (male) colleagues describing the influence of her work.
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Women in Science
(ENC #017197) Here you will find biographies of 16 female scientists, including Noether. The biographies provide insights into the struggles that each woman faced while becoming a premier scientist.
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Emmy Amalie Noether
This site provides a more detailed biography of Noether, and offers links to other sources of information. The site also features nine pictures of Noether and an interactive map of the Germany that shows the towns in which famous mathematicians were born.
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The Mother of Abstract Algebra
This text, written by an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo (in Canada), focuses on the strength of character Noether showed in the face of adversity. At the end, the author mentions how inspired she has been just by learning about Noether's life.
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Mathematicians are people, too. Volume 1: stories from the lives of great mathematicians
  Featured in ENC Focus
Date: 1990 Grade(s): 3 - 10 Cost: $15.95 ENC#: 017860
This book is packed with anecdotes from the lives of famous mathematicians. Although it is written for a younger audience, even high school students will enjoy stories such as 14-year-old Emmy Noether getting in trouble with her mother because she was busy discussing a math problem with her father.
(For more details see ENC Record)
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Celebrating women in mathematics and science
Date: 1996 Grade(s): 5 - 9 Cost: $29.95 ENC#: 007098
The chapter on Emmy Noether in this book provides a detailed chronological account of her life. The book, written entirely by classroom teachers, would be a useful resource to students starting to research the life of a famous mathematician or scientist.
(For more details see ENC Record)
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Nobel Prize women in science: their lives, struggles, and momentous discoveries
Date: 1998 Grade(s): 5 - 12 Cost: $19.96 ENC#: 025568
For a longer, more complete story of Noether's life, check out this book. The book explores the lives of 15 accomplished women scientists and would be interesting reading for high school students.
(For more details see ENC Record)
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Agnesi to Zeno: over 100 vignettes from the history of math
Featured in ENC Focus
Date: 1996 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: $26.95 ENC#: 006398
This book offers over 100 one-page vignettes from the history of math and provides corresponding activities for each one. For example, the activities related to Emmy Noether introduce clock algebra as a way to show students that abstract algebra can yield different results than traditional algebra.
(For more details see ENC Record)
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Historical connections in mathematics: resources for using history of mathematics in the classroom. Volume 3.
Featured in ENC Focus
Date: 1995 Grade(s): 5 - 9 Cost: $18.95 ENC#: 005311
This resource provides mathematical activities in a historical context. The chapter on Noether offers blackline masters of algebra activities and a brief biography that would be suitable for students to read.
(For more details see ENC Record)
Find more materials by searching Curriculum Resources on ENC Online using these terms: Algebra, Mathematicians, Noether, Amalie (), or Women in mathematics.
Realizing that there are many ways to use this Classroom Calendar entry, we chose these standards because they relate to the entry, in full or in part. If you want to explore the standards further, please use the link(s) provided.
Connections to NCTM Standards
Algebra: Understand patterns, relations, and functions
Communication: Analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others
Connections: Understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole
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Karen Plummer
Contributing Librarian, University of Akron
Abby Shoben
Publications
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First posted: 7/29/2002
Last modified: 5/26/2004 |
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