The
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...
of
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
bestowed the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award from 2002 to 2020.
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (; born Korvin-Krukovskaya; – 10 February 1891) was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differential equations and mechanics. She was a pioneer for women in mathematics a ...
(1850–1891) was the first major Russian female
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 made important contributions to
mathematical analysis
Analysis is the branch of mathematics dealing with continuous functions, limit (mathematics), limits, and related theories, such as Derivative, differentiation, Integral, integration, measure (mathematics), measure, infinite sequences, series ( ...
,
differential equations and
mechanics
Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...
, and the first woman appointed to a full
professorship
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...
in
Northern Europe
The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...
. This prestigious award named in her honor was given to promising young academics to pursue their line of research in the sciences or arts and humanities. The foundation encouraged applications from all areas of the academy so long as the investigator had received a Ph.D. in the previous six years and could be categorized as "top flight" by their publications and experience as commensurate with age.
There have been a total 139 awardees since the inception of the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award in 2002 until its closure in 2020. Individual awards totalled up to 1.6 million Euro each. Funds were awarded to build and lead a team of researchers for a five-year period within a German host institution.
Award winners
References
External links
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{{Authority control
German awards
Science and technology awards