Sofia Kovalevskaya Award

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The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany bestowed the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award from 2002 to 2020. Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891) was the first major Russian female mathematician, who made important contributions to mathematical analysis, differential equations and mechanics, and the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe. This prestigious award named in her honor was given to promising young academics to pursue their line of research in the sciences or arts and humanities. The foundation encouraged applications from all areas of the academy so long as the investigator had received a Ph.D. in the previous six years and could be categorized as "top flight" by their publications and experience as commensurate with age.^[1][2]

There have been a total 139 awardees since the inception of the Sofia Kovalevskaya Award in 2002 until its closure in 2020.^[3] Individual awards totalled up to 1.6 million Euro each. Funds were awarded to build and lead a team of researchers for a five-year period within a German host institution.^[4]