Stanisława and Otton Nikodym

Abstract

Stanislawa Nikodym was the first Polish women to obtain a PhD in mathematics. She earned this degree from the University of Warsaw in 1925. Three years later, she presented a talk in the section on analysis and topology at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Bologna. She was the wife of Otton Nikodym. The couple was an example of a “collaborating couple” who supported each other in scientific research and academic life, but they had independent scientific careers. He began his scientific research at the age of 36, shortly after marrying Stanislawa, who was then 26 and had just finished her studies. Otton Nikodym is one of the most renowned mathematicians of Polish origin, whereas her results in topology were interesting and cited on occasion. Unfortunately, she is almost unknown in Poland and abroad. The main goal of this paper is to present a very complicated history of Stanislawa as a young woman in the Russian Empire, as an educated scholar in Poland, and as an emigrant to the United States who sorely missed Poland. It will also outline the story of Otton’s intellectual development and Stanislawa and Otton’s marriage.