Mathematician:Hypatia of Alexandria

Mathematician


Greek: Ὑπατία.

Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, scientist and philosopher. Daughter of.

Head of Platonist school in Alexandria in c. 400 CE.

Notable for:
 * Being the first woman in mathematics notable enough to have been remembered by history;
 * Being murdered by a mob of Christians for holding pagan beliefs.

Her death has been argued as signalling the decline of learning in the Western world, and the start of the "dark ages", from which recovery would not happen for another thousand years. Despite the accolades, and the focus on her importance as a historical figure for the reasons above, it is not certain what she contributed to mathematics that was original.

Nationality
Alexandrian (a city in what is now Egypt).

History

 * Born: between 350 and 370 CE
 * Died: March 415

Books and Papers

 * A commentary on the 13-volume by.
 * A commentary on the of.
 * Edited the existing version of 's Almagest.
 * Edited 's commentary on.
 * The Astronomical Canon (possibly a new edition of 's Handy Tables).

Linguistic Note
While it is common to anglicise the pronunciation of her name as Hip-ay-sha, it may be more correct from examination of its Greek lettering to voice her name as Hip-a-tee-a.

Critical View

 * In an era in which the domains of intellect and politics were almost exclusively male, was an unusually liberated person who taught an unusually gifted daughter and encouraged her to achieve things that, as far as we know, no woman before her did or perhaps even dreamed of doing.