Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (January 15, 1850-February 10, 1891), was the first major Russian female mathematician in Northern Europe. She was the first woman to receive an appointment to a full professorship in Northern Europe.
Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya is known for contributions to analysis, differential equations, and mechanics.
Sofia Kovalevskaya's family nurtured her interest in mathematics and engaged the mathematician A. N. Strannoliubskii (a well-known advocate of higher education for women) as her tutor. She could not complete her education in Russia. At that time, women there were not allowed to attend universities. In order to study abroad, she needed written permission from her father (or husband). Accordingly, she contracted a "fictitious marriage" with Vladimir Kovalevsky (a paleontology student who would later collaborate with Charles Darwin) and they emigrated from Russia in 1867.
In 1869, Kovalevskaya began attending the University of Heidelberg, where she was allowed to audit classes as long as the professors involved gave their approval. She also visited London and became acquainted with Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin, and she was invited to attend George Eliot's Sunday salons. She met Herbert Spencer and debated with him about "woman's capacity for abstract thought". Sofia Kovalevskaya studied mathematics at the University of Heidelberg under Helmholtz, Kirchoff and Bunsen, and took private lessons from Karl Weierstrass in Berlin (the university would not allow her to audit classes). In 1874 she presented three papers (partial differential equations) as her doctoral dissertation about the dynamics of Saturn's rings and on elliptic integrals at the University of Göttingen. With the support of Weierstrass, she earned her a doctorate in mathematics summa cum laude. She thereby became the first woman in Europe to hold that degree.
The Kovalevskys returned to Russia, but failed to secure professorships because of their radical political beliefs. With the help of the mathematician Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Kovalevskaya was able to secure a position as a privat-docent at Stockholm University in Sweden. In 1884 she was appointed as "Professor Extraordinarius" (Professor without Chair) and became the editor of Acta Mathematica. In 1888 she won the Prix Bordin of the French Academy of Science, for her work on the question: "Mémoire sur un cas particulier du problème de le rotation d'un corps pesant autour d'un point fixe, où l'intégration s'effectue à l'aide des fonctions ultraelliptiques du temps". In 1889 she was appointed Professor Ordinarius (Professorial Chair holder) at Stockholm University, the first woman to hold such a position at a northern European university. After a change in Stockholm University's rules she was granted a Chair in the Russian Academy of Sciences, but was never offered a professorship in Russia.