German mathematician and physicist who revolutionized the theories of rings, fields and algebras.
(1882 – 1935)
From 1908 to 1919, after completing her thesis in mathematics, Noether volunteered at the Mathematical Institute of Erlangen, in Bavaria, a period during which she took an interest in the theories of algebraic invariants and number fields. She was later accepted as a docent at the same university and began work that would change the face of algebra and become instrumental in the development of modern mathematics. In 1933, although by then universally recognized for her contributions to algebra, she was forbidden by the Nazi regime from working at the university, and so she emigrated to the United States. During the later years of her life, she published the results of her research on noncommutative algebras and hypercomplex numbers.
Historical Note
In the United States, Noether lectured at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She died in 1935, at the age of 53, following complications from an ovarian cyst surgery. In a letter to the New York Times, Albert Einstein described her as “the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began”. Amalie Emmy Noether is recognized as one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century.