Diving into Math...through Theater!
The life and math of Emmy Noether explored through theater
On April 9, 2025, the Department of Mathematics in collaboration with the Department of Theatre and Dance and the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis hosted the play "Diving into Math with Emmy Noether." This play was created by portraittheater Vienna in cooperation with the Freie Universität Berlin, and brought Emmy Noether's pioneering mathematics and experiences to life by the captivating performance of Anita Zieher. Wyatt Pavilion Theater was packed with faculty, students and staff from all over campus. The evening concluded with a gathering at a local ice cream parlor where audience members engaged with the actress Anita Zieher and director Sandra Schueddekopf.
Emmy Noether (23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935), a prominent German mathematician, is best known for her contributions to abstract algebra. Noether's work is fundamental in mathematical physics, where it explains how certain continuous symmetries (as encountered in the calculus of variations and encoded in Lie groups) lead to conservation laws. Her theorems to this day feature prominently on the syllabi of classes in algebra and physics.
As a professor's daughter in Erlangen, Germany, Emmy Noether received an education typical for her time, specializing in English and French at school and learning domestic arts at home. She learned to cook, clean, and play the piano. Emmy Noether's father, Max Noether, and his friend Paul Gordan recognized Noether's mathematical talent and nurtured it. In 1907, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen, after writing a dissertation titled "Über die Bildung des Formensystems der ternären biquadratischen Form," which translates to "On Complete Systems of Invariants for Ternary Biquadratic Forms," under the direction of Paul Gordan.
She quickly made a name for herself through her work, attracting the attention and praise of contemporaries such as Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Jean Dieudonné, Hermann Weyl, and Norbert Wiener. In 1915 David Hilbert and Felix Klein invited her to join the Department of Mathematics at the University of Göttingen, where she initially lectured under Hilbert's name until her habilitation was officially approved in 1919 (overruling the Philosophy Department's objections based on her gender).
Her reputation grew alongside her crew of graduate students (the "Noether boys"). The group grew famous around town for their dedication to mathematics. When the Nazi's came to power and began to dismiss Jewish professors from German universities, Noether was one of the first affected. She moved her research meetings from the university to her studio apartment. Within six months, with the help of a grant from the Rockefellar foundation, members of the mathematical community arranged a job for her at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
The play complemented classroom learning by showing the struggles Emmy Noether faced during her life and the context in which her mathematics was created. The audience not only took a dive into mathematics, but literally witnessed Emmy Noether dive into a swimming pool.
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