Nadeschda Gernet

Gernet was born in the Russian Empire city of Simbirsk, now Ulyanovsk. She was the daughter of State Councillor, Nikolai v. Gernet, and his wife Nadezhda.[1][5]

In the spring of 1894, Gernet graduated from high school in Simbirsk with a gold medal.[5] That fall, she began her higher education at Women's University of Saint Petersburg, where she took science and math-related classes.[5] She was the first to graduate from the Women's University of Petersburg.[3] Gernet's academic interests included, but were not limited to, mathematics, astronomy, and physics.[5]

In 1902, Gernet received a PhD for her thesis Untersuchung zur Variationsrechnung (On One New Method in the Variation of Calculus), written at the University of Göttingen[5] in Germany. She was the second female doctoral candidate to study under the instruction of David Hilbert,[5][6][7] Anne Bosworth having been the first. In her thesis, Gernet extended the calculus of variations and generalized Hilbert's independence theorem to the case of two unknown functions.[5] After defending her thesis, Gernet became the second woman in Russia to hold a doctorate, and the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature: First Volume indexed Gernet's book within the same year.[8]

As her German doctorate was not recognized in Russia, in 1915 Gernet submitted her thesis On the Fundamental Simplest Problems of Variation Calculus to Moscow University in order to obtain a Russian master's degree which would also enable her to take up a university position.[9][4] Gernet included a summary of the past achievements within the field of calculus of variations, and she was the first to attempt the inclusion of inequalities in the calculus of variations.[4]

Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery

After defending her master's thesis and obtaining her degree with outstanding results from Moscow University, Gernet began her teaching career at the Saint Petersburg State University where she taught until 1929.[9] Her curriculum focused on educating female students in the Women's Higher Courses.[4][7] Soon after, she began teaching at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.[4][10] On January 1, 1943, Gernet died in St. Petersburg during the blockades of the Siege of Leningrad and was buried in the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery.[4][7][11]

Gernet's publications raised new discussions, and her work encouraged further development in the calculus of variations.[4]

• On One New Method in the Variation of Calculus[5]
• On the Fundamental Simplest Problems of Variation Calculus[4]