Helena Rasiowa (20 June 1917 – 9 August 1994) was a Polish
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, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
. She worked in the
foundations of mathematics
Foundations of mathematics is the study of the philosophical and logical and/or algorithmic basis of mathematics, or, in a broader sense, the mathematical investigation of what underlies the philosophical theories concerning the nature of mathe ...
and
algebraic logic.
Early years
Rasiowa was born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
on 20 June 1917 to Polish parents. As soon as
Poland regained its independence in 1918, the family settled in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. Helena's father was a railway specialist. She exhibited many different skills and interests, from music to business management and the most important of her interests, mathematics.
In 1938, the time was not very opportune for entering a university. Rasiowa had to interrupt her studies, as no legal education was possible in
Poland after 1939. Many people fled the country, or at least they fled the big towns, which were subject to
German bombardment and terror. The Rasiowa family fled also, as most high-ranking administration officials and members of the government were being evacuated to
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
. The family spent a year in
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
. After the Soviet invasion in September 1939, the town was taken over by the Soviet Union. The lives of many Poles became endangered, so Helena's father decided to return to
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
.
Academic development
Rasiowa became strongly influenced by Polish logicians. She wrote her Master's thesis under the supervision of
Jan Łukasiewicz
Jan Łukasiewicz (; 21 December 1878 – 13 February 1956) was a Polish logician and philosopher who is best known for Polish notation and Łukasiewicz logic His work centred on philosophical logic, mathematical logic and history of logic. ...
and
Bolesław Sobociński. In 1944, the
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
broke out and consequently
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
was almost completely destroyed. This was not only due to the immediate fighting, but also because of the systematic destruction which followed the uprising after it had been suppressed. Rasiowa's thesis burned with the whole house. She herself survived with her mother in a cellar covered by the ruins of the demolished building.
After the war, Polish mathematics began to recover its institutions, its moods, and its people. Those who remained considered their duty to be the reconstruction of Polish universities and the scientific community. One of the important conditions for this reconstruction was to gather all those who could participate in re-creating mathematics. In the meantime, Rasiowa had accepted a teaching position in a secondary school. That is where she met
Andrzej Mostowski and came back to the university. She re-wrote her Master's thesis in 1945 and in the next year she started her academic career as an assistant at the
University of Warsaw
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields o ...
, the institution she remained linked with for the rest of her life.
At the university, she prepared and defended her PhD thesis, ''Algebraic Treatment of the Functional Calculi of Lewis and Heyting,'' in 1950 under the guidance of Prof. Andrzej Mostowski. This thesis on
algebraic logic initiated her career contributing to the
Lwów–Warsaw school of logic: In 1956, she took her second academic degree, ''
doktor nauk
Doctor of Sciences ( rus, доктор наук, p=ˈdoktər nɐˈuk, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; uk, доктор наук; bg, доктор на науките; be, доктар навук) is a higher doctoral degree in the Russi ...
'' (equivalent to
habilitation today) in the Institute of Mathematics of the
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...
, where between 1954 and 1957, she held a post of Associate Professor, becoming a Professor in 1957 and subsequently Full Professor in 1967. For the degree, she submitted two papers, ''Algebraic Models of Axiomatic Theories'' and ''Constructive Theories'', which together formed a thesis named ''Algebraic Models of Elementary Theories and their Applications''.
Works
* ''The Mathematics of Metamathematics'' (1963, together with
Roman Sikorski
Roman Sikorski (July 11, 1920 – September 12, 1983) was a Polish mathematician.
Biography
Sikorski was a professor at the University of Warsaw from 1952 until 1982. Since 1962, he was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Sikorski's ...
)
* ''An Algebraic Approach to Non-Classical Logics'' (1974)
External links
*
"Helena Rasiowa", Biographies of Women Mathematicians Agnes Scott College
*
Rasiowa's BiographyA tribute to Helena Rasiowa – by Melvin Fitting
On the contributions of Helena Rasiowa to mathematical logic– an article by J. M. Font
Website dedicated to Helena Rasiowa- by Zbigniew Ras
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasiowa, Helena
1917 births
1994 deaths
20th-century Polish mathematicians
Polish women mathematicians
Polish logicians
20th-century women mathematicians
Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland)
20th-century Polish women