Sofya Kovalevskaya.

Sofya Kovalevskaya (pronounced "kuh-vul-YAYF-skuh-yuh")--known in the West as Sonya Kovalevsky (pronounced "koh-vuh-LEHF-skee")--was born Sofya Vasilyevna Korvin-Krukovskaya in Moscow on January 15, 1850. Her family had an aristocratic background. Her father was a Russian artillery general. Being the middle of three children, Sofya often felt neglected. For much of her childhood, she was raised by a strict governess. As a result, she became nervous and withdrawn. Sofya's father refused to let her pursue mathematics, so she studied secretly. Because of a wallpaper shortage, the nursery had been papered with her father's old calculus notes. Sofya studied these notes. She also studied a physics book that she had obtained from a family friend, Professor Tyrtov. At fourteen, she taught herself trigonometry so that she could understand the physics book. Tyrtov was so impressed that he persuaded her father to let her study mathematics. Sofya went to St. Petersburg to study. After her secondary schooling, Sofya wished to attend a university. The closest university open to women was in Germany. Since single women were not permitted to travel alone, she married Vladimir Kovalevsky in September, 1868. Their marriage was solely one of convenience. They moved to Heidelberg, Germany. Sofya Kovalevskaya studied at the University of Heidelberg. In 1871, she moved to the University of Berlin to study with Karl Weierstrass. Women were not allowed to attend university lectures, but he tutored her privately for four years. Without ever attending a university lecture, she was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 1874. While working on her doctorate, Kovalevskaya had done original research on various topics and had produced four papers. INSET: Sofya Kovalevskaya.