The story of Sofia Kovalevskaya is a prime example of grit and determination - like no other.

Sofia was born on the 15th of January 1850 in Moscow to a conservative elite family. At a very young age, she had developed a curiosity in Mathematics so large that she had begun to ignore other subjects. This prompted her father to stop her math tutoring. But that wouldn't deter young Sofia. She borrowed Bourdon’s textbook called Algebra Course and read it during bedtime, when the whole household was asleep. Fortunately for her, this was to change very soon.

Nicolai Tyrtov, an eminent physicist and a neighbour, presented to the family a new book he had written. In trying to read and understand the contents of the book, Sofia had to interpret a sine wave, which she did from first principles – without any prior knowledge. At the age of 12 years, this was a watershed moment in Sofia’s life. It kick-started what would be an absolute rollercoaster of a pursuit in mathematics.

Under the insistence of Tyrtov, Sofia's father agreed to arrange private tuitions for her under Alexandr Strannolubski, one of Tyrtov’s students. However, she couldn't go to university in Russia, as conservative Russian societal norms discouraged girls from attaining higher education. In 1868, she married Vladimir Kovalevsky, a young palaeontologist. This allowed her to move to Germany.

As her brilliance and mathematical aptitude were lauded by her instructors of the likes of great scientists like Gustav Kirchoff and Hermann Helmholtz, Sofia continued in Heidelberg, Germany for three semesters - until 1871, following which she moved to Berlin on the advice of Leo Konigsberger to study under his student, Karl Weierstrass, at the University of Berlin.

Despite the best efforts of Karl Weierstrass, Sofia was not admitted to the University of Berlin. So, he took it upon himself to tutor her privately. Weierstrass and Sofia forged an amazing teacher-student bond that resulted in the latter writing three papers - on Partial Differential Equations, Abelian Integrals, and another about deciphering the shape of Saturn’s rings.The first was touted as the most important one and was published in a reputed journal in 1875, a year after she was granted a doctorate with top honours by the University of Gottingen.

Sofia and Vladimir Kovalevskaya returned to Russia in the hope of landing jobs as academics. To their disappointment, however, they weren’t able to do so.

After six long years, Chebyshev, the famous Russian Mathematician, invited her to speak in the 6th Congress of Natural Scientists, prompting her return to Mathematics. Gosta Mittag-Leffler recommended Sofia for a teaching position at Stockholm University, where she ended up spending five years as a professor – the first woman professor at the university!

It was at this time that she performed extensive research, along with editing a mathematical journal and organizing conferences that finally gave her the respect and recognition she rightfully deserved. However, her most significant achievement was winning the Prix Bordin in 1886. The Prix Bordin is a contest organized by the French National Academy of Sciences, where she had to come up with a solution to a problem on rigid body dynamics. Sofia further researched rigid body dynamics, which won her a prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1889. In recognition of this achievement, the Imperial Academy of Sciences modified its rules to allow women scientists to be members of the academy while appointing her as a member in the same year.

After a brief illness, Sofia breathed her last on the 10th of February 1891. She might have passed away, but her legacy and work serve as an inspiration for women in science even today.

• Ashwin Ananthanarayanan