Women Who Changed the World Through Science & Engineering: Hypatia

Hypatia  --  Influential Mathematician and Philosopher

--Perhaps the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics

--Murdered by her adversaries

Her influence as a mathematician, philosopher and teacher  in ancient Alexandria, Egypt --at a time when opportunities for women were practically non-existent-- was so great that Carl Sagan paid tribute to her in his book Cosmos. Hypatia has also been recognized in art work and novels throughout history. Born between the years 355 and 370 A.D., Hypatia, collaborating with her father (the mathematician Theon) furthered the work of Ptolemy's astronomy and a new version of Euclid's Elements (the basic text in the history of geometry). She was an early proponent of scientific thought based on rational, sound evidence. Ironically, these qualities led to Hypatia's brutal murder at around 416 A.D. by a sect of the Christian Church which viewed her influence as dangerous and paganistic.

To read more about Hypatia and other exciting role models in science and engineering, visit the USA Science & Engineering Festival www.usasciencefestival.org

More like this

Is the Super Mario Bros. theme song the most covered song ever? Via hacklab.to:
It's called Agora, and it's about Hypatia, who was a kind of non-Christian martyr, murdered by a religious mob.
Our cute Raccoon Dog post (directly below this one) just took a turn for crudeness and hilarity.
I must be a magnet for madness. The latest treasure to manifest itself in my mail is a book by Stefano Polidori called The Chaos Riders.

Thanks for writing about Hypatia. More folks should know about this great woman

By Faith Justice (not verified) on 30 Nov 2012 #permalink

Of course she was, how could a woman know anything, she was a woman, and gosh, since she preferred science to cooking, she must be a witch. (Although I would like to point out that paganism and witch-craft are two separate items, but I'm banking on them being the same thing is 400 AD.

::::::::beating head on keyboard:::::::::::

ignorance... it will be the death of us all.

By Elaine Osspov (not verified) on 07 Mar 2013 #permalink