Nils Elander – författare

CO«i»b.H BaCHJIbeBHa lU>BaJIeBcR8JI (Sonja Kovalevsky) was born in Moscow in 1850 and died in Stockholm in 1891. Between these years, in the then changing and turbulent circumstances for Europe, lies the all too brief life of this remarkable woman. This life was lived out within the great European centers of power and learning in Russia, France, Germany, Switzerland, England and Sweden. To this day, now 150 years after her birth, her influence for and contribution to mathe­ matics, science, literature, women's rights and democratic government are recorded and reviewed, not only in Europe but now in countries far removed in time and distance from the lands of her birth and being. This volume, dedicated to her memory and to her achievements, records the Proceedings of the Marcus Wallenberg Symposium held, in memory of Sonja Kovalevsky, at Stockholm University from 18 to 22 June 2000. The symposium was held at the Department of Mathematics with its excellent library and lecture halls providing favourable working conditions. Within these pages are contained a curriculum vitae for Sonja Kovalevsky, a list of all her scientific publications, together with a copy of the moving and elegant obituary notice written by her friend and protector Gosta Mittag-Leffler. These papers are followed by a leading article entitled Sonja Kovalevsky: Her life and professorship in Stockholm, written especially for this volume by Jan-Erik Bjork in preparation for his major address to the Symposium.

Scattering theory is of interest to physicists and to chemists and has a wide variety of applications, but it also presents a considerable challenge to mathematicians, including numerical analysts. Within the Schrödinger picture in this volume are collected the various theoretical and mathematical treatments of scattering together with a host of reviews of its applications to atomic and nuclear physics, to surface physics and chemistry, for example trapping of atoms on surfaces, and to amorphous condensed systems. The reviews give a concise and pedagogically useful presentation of the state of the art, and may serve as introductions for newcomers, in particular for graduate students.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Kovalevsky symposium held in Stockholm 2000. The first part is devoted to the life of S. Kovalevsky, the first female professor of mathematics, who influenced the development of European science during the last century. Historical notes by G. Mittag-Leffler and copies of official documents related to her life as well as several articles on her life and mathematics are presented. The main articles by J.-E. Bjork describe her life and professorship at Stockholm University. Part two of the volume contains 23 contributions in pure and applied mathematics, and in mathematical physics resulting from the lectures delivered within the program of the symposium.