Emmy Noether at the Institute for Advanced Study

While Emmy Noether enjoyed spending time with the “Noether family” she cultivated at Bryn Mawr, she also wanted to connect with the broader American mathematical community. Marion Edwards Park, who served as the president of Bryn Mawr from 1922 to 1942 and fought for the appointment of Emmy Noether in the first place, looked for opportunities for this first-class mathematician to maximize her contributions and pursue the area of mathematics that she was passionate about. In December of 1933, after seeing that Emmy Noether was able to communicate in English, President Park selected a group of mathematicians from nearby institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Swarthmore, to attend a lecture presented by Emmy Noether. [18] This lecture turned out very well and Emmy Noether impressed the assembled scholars with her profound knowledge and devoted spirit.

This successful lecture showed that Emmy Noether could speak to a carefully chosen group that had the necessary background to understand her complicated subject and thus make the best use of her knowledge. A similar opportunity came her way when Oswald Veblen invited her to give weekly lectures, starting in February 1934 at the Institute for Advanced Study. [4] Thus, her short time in the U.S. left a memorable mark on the critical early years of the IAS.

In contrast to her experiences as a lecturer at Bryn Mawr, her audience at the IAS mostly consisted of research fellows, including Albert Einstein, Hermann Weyl and Harry Vandiver. The sophisticated scholarly experience of her audience allowed her to cover more specialized topics in modern algebra, which related more closely to her mathematical soul. [4] In a letter to her friend Helmut Hasse of March 6, 1934, she wrote that “I have started with representation modules, groups with operations...; Princeton will receive its first algebraic treatment this winter, and a thorough one at that.” [4] In addition, she paid attention to her audience and crafted her lectures accordingly. In her correspondence to Hasse, she also mentioned that “I’m beginning to realize that I must be careful; after all, they are essentially used to explicit computation and I have already driven a few of them away with my approach!” [4]

Noether, however, did not receive honoraria for her lectures, unlike seventeen other occasional visiting lecturers, all male, who presented at the IAS throughout the 1930s. [8] But she seemed not bothered by this, presumably because she was grateful for the opportunity given to her. At the IAS, she recognized that Princeton was emerging as a critical location for mathematics, and that, at the very least, gender did not limit learning opportunities. [4]

She may have also enjoyed her time at the IAS because the academic community there may have reminded her of Göttingen. Emmy Noether and Hermann Weyl were colleagues back in Göttingen, and she also worked with Richard Brauer on the principle theorem in Linear Associated Algebras in late 1920s. [6] The scientific interaction had brought them together in the past and now exile strengthened the personal ties between these refugee mathematicians. In fact, after her lecture at the IAS, she usually spent some time with Weyl, Veblen and the Brauers before returning to Bryn Mawr. [4] With the company of world-class mathematicians from her homeland, Emmy Noether enjoyed every Tuesday that she spent at the IAS and gradually built a group of colleagues and friends in her new home as well as a support system in the United States. In fact, her connections with scientists at Princeton were so deep that, when she passed away on April 14, 1935, a substantial number of faculty and students from the mathematics department at Princeton University came to Bryn Mawr and attended the funeral held at the home of President Park on April 18, 1935. [15] Even though traveling between Princeton and Bryn Mawr would not take too long, Emmy Noether had been on this route every week for over a year without monetary compensation. In return, she earned herself respect and recognition from the American scholarly community, and left her mark on the early years of the IAS as an inspiring mathematician.

The cover image is in the public domain and can be accessed at  https://www.flickr.com/photos/patriciabarcala/18580454571/ .