In John Stuart Mill's 1866 mass petition to the UK Parliament to grant women the right to vote, the first signature on the petition was Somerville's, which she signed before the age of 86.
Leben und Werk
When she died in 1872, The Morning Post declared in her obituary that "Whatever difficulty we might experience in the middle of the nineteenth century in choosing a king of science, there could be no question whatever as to the queen of science". The first use of the word "scientist" in the English language was in a review by William Whewell of Somerville's second book On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences. Beyond her work as a scientist, she is known and celebrated as a mathematician and philosopher.
Somerville College, a college of the University of Oxford, is named after her, reflecting the virtues of liberalism and academic success that the college wished to embody. She is featured on the front of the Royal Bank of Scotland polymer £10 note launched in 2017 along with a quotation from On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences.
Wichtige Fakten
- Born: December 26, 1780 in Jedburgh, Scotland
- Gestorben: 1872
- Fachgebiet: Mathematics
- Auszeichnungen: Patron's Medal (1869)
Vermächtnis und Wirkung
The influence of Mary Somerville extends far beyond her own lifetime. She fundamentally shaped the foundations of modern mathematics, and her theorems and mathematical frameworks remain foundational to this day.
Though she passed away in 1872, her ideas continue to be studied, debated, and built upon by scholars and practitioners worldwide.
Mary Somerville bleibt eine der gefeiertsten Persönlichkeiten aus Scotland und ein Zeugnis des reichen geistigen Erbes der Region.
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