Donna KopenhaferDec 17, 2022
Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️‍⚧️♾️🇺🇦
OK, here’s an idea I want to try. Without looking it up on the Internet anywhere, just off the top of your head, do you know who Emmy Noether is? You can look her up after answering, but don’t post the answer till the poll is over! Please boost for more numbers. #women
Never heard of her
67.2%
Heard the name but not sure who she is
10.3%
I know who she is
22.5%
Poll ended at .
Dec 17, 2022 at 7:15pmMastoot
Show threadJeff FeckeDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Depressing as heck.
Show threadrob HAS MOVEDDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Very disappointed to have to say I hadn't heard of her, now I know who she is 🙄
Show threadThe Febrile MuseDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith
Omg, another woman I don’t know 🤦‍♀️
@donmelton
Show threadRoss of OttawaDec 17, 2022

@dgoldsmith I had the pleasure of choosing her name to attach to a corporate meeting room once, along with others for various other scientists.

When there were network problems in that room, the engineers quickly noticed her name could be changed to "no ether" as in no Ethernet, which I thought was rather funny happenstance.

Show threadPatty Bluebird 🦩Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith What an incredible woman!
Yes, I had to Google her.
Show threadJoe KatzDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith #TodayILearned
Show threadKimVDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I know who she is thanks to some onto it person reminding me about her today.
Show threadDagmar FraserDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith For those who don't know her... https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00025bw In Our Time had a fantastic episode in 2019. Perfectly timed as I needed to decipher a paper that cited her work...
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Emmy Noether

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of one of the great 20th-century mathematicians.

BBC
Show threadHoward SnowDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith beyond impressive
Show threadalways tired (moved to chaos)Dec 18, 2022
@snowman @dgoldsmith I like Wikipedia's "was born to a Jewish family" instead of "was Jewish" :) (sarcasm)
Show threadDave Dawkins (D. Harrigon)Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith
*googles after answering* ...oh, yeah. That's right.
Show threadLevel 98 🇺🇦Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I was expecting a far higher percentage to have heard of her. Looks like we all need to post about her lots!
Show threadRobJLowDec 17, 2022
@level98 @dgoldsmith Physicists (ok, theoretical/mathematical ones) and algebraists will know about her, but I suspect that if you get outside those communities it's very few people. (Though I think she deserves to be known as well as, say, Marie Curie.)
Show threadpedestrian cyclistDec 17, 2022
@RobJLow @level98 @dgoldsmith
But outside those communities, how many people would actually say they know about Boltzmann, Poincaré or Kolmogorov (for example)?
Feels really hard to have a reference here...
Show threadRobJLowDec 18, 2022
@odoruhako @level98 @dgoldsmith I agree completely: I'd expect a significantly different profile of answers on mathstodon than on a more general instance. Some people are "world famous" to a relatively small community with members all over the world...
Show threadLillyLyle/Count MelancholiaDec 20, 2022
@odoruhako I studied English Literature and even I know those first two.
Show threadAndy LowryDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith
I'm into that general era of science, so I had a leg up on that one. Now do Lise Meitner. 😀
Show threadJulieDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith But doubt that I know many in that field. The other names in the W article meant nothing to me, except Einstein.
Show threadDaveDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I'm a physicist and had the pleasure of attending a wonderful lecture given in one of my graduate school classes on classical mechanics. My professor loved the beauty of mathematics and not only derived the conservation laws from their symmetries, he gave us a nice backstory summary of Noether's life and work.
Show threadTombe la pluie - TheespookjeDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith now that I've Googled it I'm sad I didn't hear about her at all.
Show threadChristian TagsoldDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Well, I studied in Erlangen… We have a street named after Emmy Noether, and a friend who studied math in Erlangen named his first daughter Emmy in honor of her. Besides, the primary postdoc grant in Germany bears her name.
Show threadDrWhoZeeDec 17, 2022
@ChTagsold @dgoldsmith …and a high school is named after her as well in #erlangen
Show threadJohn Faithfull🌍🇪🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🧡 ✊🏼✊🏿Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith 👌👏
Show threadSolvejg NitzkeDec 17, 2022

@dgoldsmith had a poster of her in my office as a good luck charm while my proposal for the eponymous DFG-program was under review. Well, it didn't work out but judging from her history that shouldn't discourage me, should it? 😉

She's also featured in this pretty gem of a book

Show threadRobert IlbrinkDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Without looking it up, I think she was a German Mathematician.
Show threadRobert IlbrinkDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith apparently, I remembered it correctly.
Show threadSimon SchultzDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith very disappointed by the results of this poll
Show threadLeft Coast BecDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I was told there would be no math.
Show threadvolkerblumDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Alumnus of Emmy Noether Gymnasium (high school) Erlangen, her home town. We do know her and the school has a big bronze plaque commemorating her and her accomplishment. Independent of this, no way to make it through undergrad theoretical physics without the Noether Theorem.
Show threadKirkDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I don't know anyone's name though, even people who are considered quite famous. I think it has to do with the mental cave I live in. I do know most people's names I have direct contact with though.
Show threadDavid K.Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith my former University in Siegen, Germany has a small campus named after her. But I never looked why.
Show threadFelixDec 17, 2022

@dgoldsmith The math and physics campus at my university is named after her.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy-Noether-Campus

Emmy-Noether-Campus – Wikipedia

Show threadThe Conversation U.S.Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Here’s a good introduction to her work, written by a young woman mathematician https://theconversation.com/emmy-noether-faced-sexism-and-nazism-100-years-later-her-contributions-to-ring-theory-still-influence-modern-math-163245
Emmy Noether faced sexism and Nazism – 100 years later her contributions to ring theory still influence modern math

More than a century after publishing major papers in theoretical mathematics, German-born Emmy Noether continues to challenge and inspire mathematicians with her story and mathematical legacy.

The Conversation
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Dec 17, 2022

@dgoldsmith

I've known mathematicians who were relatively ignorant of her, but every physicist I know worships her.

Show threadLieberoDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith @rechelon I heard about her first in mathematics studies
Show threadalapiteDec 18, 2022
@rechelon @dgoldsmith Any mathematician who has taken a few undergraduate algebra classes ought to have heard of her. Noetherian rings are hardly exotic.
Show threadAndreaDec 18, 2022
@rechelon @dgoldsmith ...where in heck did you find mathematicians who didn't know the isomorphism theorems?
Show threadColin the MathmoDec 18, 2022

@andrea Not all mathematicians study Abstract Algebra to that level. You can do logic, combinatorics, graph theory, real and complex analysis, topology, and more, all without meeting the isomorphism theorems.

I knew of Noetherian Rings, but had no idea why they were useful, important, or worthy of a name. I only learned of "Noether the person" and her body of work much later.

@rechelon @dgoldsmith

Show threadHendrik Erz, PhDDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith TIL, thank you! Women are too often ignored or not realized in STEM — even if everyone knows the name, such as Ada Lovelace, or what she‘s famous for, such as Margaret Hamilton
Show threadWoozle HypertwinDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith There was a postage stamp...
Show threadMaikeDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I know she was a scientist, but forgot which field ...
Show threadTim PantonDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I only know because she was the subject of a https://deadladiesshow.com/about/ event in Berlin a few months ago. They also have a podcast.
About

The Dead Ladies Show
Show threadDrWhoZeeDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith @TheConversationUS yep, know a bit about her — but then, I live in #Erlangen, her birth place.
Show threadGraham LesterDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I voted the third option because I was pretty sure that she was a mathematician who contributed to relativity but in reality my understanding of her work is entirely superficial and I should be sent to the back of the class.
Show threadScot CloseDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I learned from listening to Sean Carroll's podcast.
Show threadacbDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Her surname is a useful mnemonic
Show threadStef JuckerDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Well I study physics, so I do know. The Noether theorem even won the march madness physics frenzy bracket by the perimeter institute! But I had not heard of her before I started studying physics.
Show threadDave AhlmanDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I’m sorry to say I didn’t know who she was, but I’m glad I looked her up!
Show threadBalthasar ReuterDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith She is being celebrated widely in Erlangen due to the local connection. But I doubt she felt particularly appreciated given how little she received in official acknowledgement.
Beyond that, I'm assuming she may be familiar at least by name to many German academics because the early career program of the German research foundation is named after her.
Show threadSteve GisselbrechtDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith
I learned about her from the musician (and science fan) Kristin Hersh!
Show thread🥊 angry pink ball 🥊Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith honestly only knew about her bc my freshman cal professor made a point of emphasizing the first and second theorems and how female voices throughout STEM and history in general have been suppressed or written out of collective memory
Show thread-.- . ...- .. -.Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Noether's theorem should be more widely appreciated
Show threadaproustianDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith I learned about her in graduate school for physics. Well, I learned her theorem and then weeks later learned it was a woman who created it!
Show threadRalf StubnerDec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith Great question! I probably have an unfair advantage given that I studied in her hometown.
Show threadngoomie is moving!Dec 17, 2022
@dgoldsmith looked her up and she seems like someone i would end up hearing about via my boyfriend infodumping to me sooner or later
but no, this poll is the first i've heard of her alas
Show threadJoanna LinkDec 18, 2022
@dgoldsmith I learnt about her theorem in my undergrad physics degree
Show threadRubenDec 18, 2022
@dgoldsmith I'm pretty sure it's safe to say she's the favourite mathematician of one of our professors (mechanics and QFT).
If you get far enough in physics, you have little choice but to get familiar with Neuther's theorem.
Show threadMorganaDec 18, 2022
@dgoldsmith Wow!! Interesting woman!!!
Show threadCorey McCaffreyDec 18, 2022

@dgoldsmith We read this great picture book by Helaine Becker and Kari Rust with our kids a few weeks ago.

The title is literally Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of!

https://www.kidscanpress.com/product/emmy-noether/

Emmy Noether - Kids Can Press

In this engaging and inspiring biography, a groundbreaking but relatively unknown woman finally gets her due as one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century.#Emmy Noether is not pretty, quiet, good at housework or eager to marry - all the things a German girl is expected to be in her time. What she is, though, is a genius at math. When she grows up, she finds a way to first study math at a university (by sitting in, not actually enrolling) and then to teach it (by doing so for free). She also manages to do her own research into some of the most pressing math and physics problems of the day. And though she doesn’t get much credit during her lifetime, her discoveries continue to influence how we understand the world today.#Bestselling and award-winning Helaine Becker has crafted an engaging look at the life of Emmy Noether, a contemporary of Einstein’s and one of the most influential, though little known, mathematicians of the twentieth century. Despite the obstacles she faced as a woman in a male-dominated field, and as a Jew who had to flee the Nazis, Emmy still accomplished a great deal. Artwork by Kari Rust uses touches of humor for emphasis and a golden glowing effect around Emmy to visually express her brilliance and ideas. Back matter includes a biographical note, explanations of complex mathematical concepts and suggestions for further reading. There are curriculum links to physics and mathematics - subjects portrayed here as fascinating and exciting - and poignant real-life character education lessons on courage and perseverance.

Kids Can Press
Show threadoaksterDec 18, 2022
@dgoldsmith great episode about her in BBC’s In Our Time https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00025bw
In Our Time - Emmy Noether - BBC Sounds

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of one of the great 20th-century mathematicians.

BBC