Notable Mathematicians Posters “H...-K...-”
for classrooms and homeschoolers.

Caroline Hershel
Grace Hopper
Fred Hoyle

Hypatia of Alexandria
Johannes Kepler
Ibn Khaldun

Caroline Herschel
b. 3-16-1750; Hanover, Germany
d. 1-9-1848

Caroline Herschel, the sister and full time assistant of astronomer William Herschel, lived most of her 98 years in England. She was the first woman to discover a comet; the recognition earned her an annual salary from King George III.

Grace Hopper
b. 12-9-1906; NYC
d. 1-1-1992; Arlington, VA

A pioneer in the development of computer languages, Grace Hopper played an essential role in developing and standardizing COBOL, which led to widespread use of computers in business, governmental, and science applications.

• more Grace Hopper posters
• Women of Science poster series
• more Internet Posters

Fred Hoyle
b. 6-25-1915; Gilstead, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England
d. 8-20-2001 (stroke)

Astronomer and mathematician Fred Hoyle is remembered best for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis as well as his controversial stance on other cosmological matters such as the“Big Bang” theory, a term he originally coined on BBC radio.

In addition to his work as an astronomer, Hoyle was a writer of science fiction.

Fred Hoyle quotes ~
• “Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available, a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.”
• “Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.”
• “It is in the world of ideas and in the relation of his brain to the universe itself that the superiority of Man lies. The rise of Man may justly be described as an adventure in ideas.”
• “It has often been said that, if the human species fails to make a go of it here on the Earth, some other species will take over the running. In the sense of developing intelligence this is not correct. We have or soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far as this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned.”
• “When I was young, the old regarded me as an outrageous young fellow, and now that I'm old the young regard me as an outrageous old fellow.”
• “The creationist is a sham religious person who, curiously, has no true sense of religion. In the language of religion, it is the facts we observe in the world around us that must be seen to constitute the words of God. Documents, whether the Bible, Qur'an or those writings that held such force for Velikovsky, are only the words of men. To prefer the words of men to those of God is what one can mean by blasphemy. This, we think, is the instinctive point of view of most scientists who, curiously again, have a deeper understanding of the real nature of religion than have the many who delude themselves into a frenzied belief in the words, often the meaningless words, of men. Indeed, the lesser the meaning, the greater the frenzy, in something like inverse proportion.”

Hypatia of Alexandria
b. c. 360 AD; Alexandria
d. c. 415; Alexandria- mob violence

Hypatia, a Neo-Platonic Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, astrologist and teacher, may have been murdered by a mob because she was a pagan. Her death occured in the conflicts that erupted during the time Christianity was imposed as the state religion.

• Hypatia in Women of Science composite poster
• Hypatia of Alexandria

Johannes Kepler
b. 12-27-1571; Free Imperial City of Weil der Stadt, near Stuttgart, now Germany
d. 11-15-1630; Regensburg, Electorate of Bavaria

Astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and teacher Johannes Kepler, a key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, is best remembered for describing the motion of planets around the Sun. His work provided insights to Isaac Newton for the theory of universal gravitation.

Kepler had smallpox as a child and suffered from impaired vision and crippled hands.

FYI ~ Kepler's mother, Katharina, was an herbalist, and who according to Kepler took him to “... a high place to look” at the Great Comet of 1577, was accused of witch craft, and saved from execution by her son.

Johannes Kepler quotes ~
• “Truth is the daughter of time, and I feel no shame in being her midwife.”
• “We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.”
• “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.”
• “Nature uses as little as possible of anything.”
• “I feel carried away and possessed by an unutterable rapture over the divine spectacle of heavenly harmony... I write a book for the present time, or for posterity. It is all the same to me. It may wait a hundred years for its readers, as God has also waited six thousand years for an onlooker.”
• “The soul of the newly born baby is marked for life by the pattern of the stars at the moment it comes into the world, unconsciously remembers it, and remains sensitive to the return of configurations of a similar kind.”
• “Since geometry is co-eternal with the divine mind before the birth of things, God himself served as his own model in creating the world.”
• “Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God.”

• Kepler's Witch : An Astronomer's Discovery of Cosmic Order Amid Religious War, Political Intrigue, and the Heresy Trial of His Mother

Ibn Khaldun
b. 5-27-1332; Tunis, Tunisia
d. 3-19-1406; Cairo

Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun is noted as an early contributor to cultural history, historiography and the philosophy of history. He also was a teacher, astronomer, jurist, theologian, mathematician, and philosopher.

Omar Khayyam
b. 5-18-1048; Iran
d. 1131

Omar Khayyám was a Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer best remembered in the West for his Rubaiyat. Rubaiyat is a word derived from the Arabic root word for “4”, and meaning a ruba'i or two line stanza with two parts per line.

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou ...

• The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Andrey Kolmogorov
b. 4-25-1903; Moscow, Russia
d. 10-20-1987; Moscow

Mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov worked with “probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics and computational complexity”. He also taught at the university level and developed “a pedagogy for gifted children, in literature, and in music, as well as in mathematics”.

Sofia Kovalevskaya
b. 1-15-1850; Moscow, Russia
d. 2-10-1891; breast cancer

Sofia Kovalevskaya, the first major Russian female mathematician, was also the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe (Stockholm).

The lunar crater Kovalevskaya is named in her honor.