Bryn Mawr students, faculty, and lovers of mathematics and physics gathered together to honor the 90th anniversary of the death of Emmy Noether. Noether, one of the most prominent female mathematicians and physicists in history, died suddenly at age 53 in 1935 while working as a researcher and professor at Bryn Mawr College. Her body was cremated and the ashes interred within the cloisters of Bryn Mawr’s Old Library.
Rhonda Hughes, who is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Bryn Mawr, co-organized the event, which took place on April 13.
“Emmy Noether is probably the most famous woman mathematician of the modern times, and the fact that she was buried at Bryn Mawr College was always very important to us, to make sure that she was properly honored,” Hughes told the Bi-Co News.
Noether’s greatest legacy is widely regarded to be her theorems, which were basic for both general relativity and elementary particle physics. Noether’s Theorem, as her first one was called, states that for every continuous symmetry in a physical system, there exists a conservation law. This theorem continues to be very influential and has been applied across classical mechanics, high energy physics, and statistical mechanics.
As a German Jewish woman, Noether faced many challenges in the 1930s. In 1933, she was fired from her position at the University of Göttingen and fled to America as a refugee to escape the rise of the Nazi party. When she arrived in America, she accepted a position at Bryn Mawr and taught there until her death in 1935.
Albert Einstein, Noether’s contemporary, penned her obituary in the New York Times in 1935. He wrote, “Fräulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began. In the realm of algebra, in which the most gifted mathematicians have been busy for centuries, she discovered methods which have proved of enormous importance in the development of the present-day younger generation of mathematicians.”
One of Noether’s other great admirers is Dr. Ingrid Daubechies, who is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Duke University. Daubechies, who is another one of the most influential female mathematicians in history, had a plaque honoring Noether commissioned for the Emmy C. Noether lectures at the International Mathematical Union conferences which are held every four years. However, she felt that the plaque should find a more permanent home, and decided to give it to Bryn Mawr in conjunction with the 90th anniversary of Noether’s death.
“I think every reason is good to celebrate, and we should especially celebrate women because they tend to be more self-effacing and so, they are then more easily forgotten,” she told the Bi-Co News.
The new bronze plaque honoring Noether, which was installed in the cloisters, was unveiled at a late-morning ceremony officiated by Rabbi Nora Woods. Members of Noether’s family came out to celebrate her legacy, including two of her grand-nieces.
Monica Noether, one of Noether’s grandnieces, commented, “It’s wonderful that she did as much as she did, with the hardships and being a Jewish woman in the early twentieth century, so I think that the whole family is really really proud of her.”
Preceding the unveiling of the plaque, both Daubechies and Hughes gave respective presentations on Noether’s legacy as a mathematician and a member of the Bryn Mawr community. After the ceremony, Dr. Qinna Shen, an Associate Professor and Chair of the German department at Bryn Mawr, gave a presentation entitled ‘A Refugee Scholar from Nazi Germany: Emmy Noether and Bryn Mawr.’ This programming was followed by a lunch at Wyndham alumni house, where attendees discussed the implications of Noether’s work.
Maja Teofilovska ‘26, a current Bryn Mawr student in the A.B./M.A. program for physics, told the Bi-Co News how Noether’s legacy has impacted her work. “It makes me feel really proud, because she’s such a big name in physics. And especially as a female physicist, to have her as part of our legacy is really exciting.”
