Subject: [HM] Emmy Noether
From: Peter Ross (PRoss@scu.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2000 - 20:15:24 EST
On 1/27/00 Karen Dee M. asked:
"Another question. Albert Einstein was to have said that he considered
Emmy Noether the greatest mathematician he ever met. What do you think?
I'm doing some research on Noether."
(Forgive me if someone has already responded to this question, but I've
not seen it.)
I think the context makes clear that Einstein meant the greatest woman
mathematician in recent times, but readers can judge for themselves from
the following somewhat-ambiguous excerpt of Einstein's letter on May 5, 1935,
to the New York Times, which was entitled "The Late Emmy Noether":
"In the judgment of the most competent living mathematicians, Fraeulein
Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far
produced since the higher education of women began."
The entire letter is quoted on pages 92-94 of Auguste Dick's 1981 biography
"Emmy Noether 1882-1935", published by Birkhauser.
Appendix B of the book states that Einstein's obituary appeared on May 4
(not May 5), 1935, on p.12 as a letter to the editor.
Dr. Peter Ross
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, CA 95053-0290
phone (408) 554-4544
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