Emmy Noether
1882–1935, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States
German mathematician who founded modern abstract algebra through her work on rings and ideals, and proved the theorem, named after her, linking every differentiable one-parameter symmetry of a physical system's action to a conservation law.
Noether was the daughter of the mathematician Max Noether and, as a woman, was only allowed to audit courses at the University of Erlangen before matriculation rules changed in 1904. She earned her doctorate there in 1907 under Paul Gordan and, since women could not habilitate, worked unpaid at Erlangen for years, developing her ideas on abstract algebra under the influence of Ernst Fischer. In 1915 David Hilbert and Felix Klein invited her to Göttingen, where she quickly proved what is now known as Noether's theorem, showing that every differentiable one-parameter symmetry of a physical system's action corresponds to a conservation law — a result Einstein praised as fundamental to relativity. Hilbert had to advertise her lectures under his own name for years before she was finally allowed to habilitate in 1919.
Through the 1920s Noether transformed algebra with her abstract theory of ideals in rings, work that became central to modern ring and module theory and drew students such as B L van der Waerden and Emil Artin to Göttingen. In April 1933 the Nazi regime dismissed her from her post because she was Jewish; she emigrated to the United States later that year to take up a position at Bryn Mawr College, where she also lectured at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She died unexpectedly in 1935 following surgery, aged 53.
Workplaces: University of Göttingen, Bryn Mawr College
Germany, United States