In the history of mathematics, Alma Johanna Ruubel is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Alma Johanna Ruubel as Estonian mathematician (1899-1990).
Alma Johanna Ruubel was born at Õisu Rural Municipality in 1899. Her recorded nationality is Estonia. She studied at University of Tartu.
Around the turn of the twentieth century the foundations of mathematics were under open attack, and set theory and logic became urgent questions.
Mathematical work is judged by whether anyone can build on it, and that judgement takes decades.
That the work was done from Estonia matters: mathematical training, institutions and the language of publication have never been evenly distributed.
Alma Johanna Ruubel died in 1990, aged 91. The proofs remain, and a proof does not decay - which is the particular permanence mathematics offers.
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