Sofya is the Russian form of Sophia — from Greek sophia (wisdom). **Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850-1891)** was the **first woman in modern Europe to earn a PhD in mathematics** (Göttingen, 1874, *summa cum laude*) — and the **first woman appointed a full professor of mathematics** (Stockholm, 1889). **Her *Kovalevskaya top* is one of only three integrable cases of the spinning top, alongside Euler and Lagrange.** Also a novelist and playwright. Died of pneumonia at 41.
Subject of Don H. Kennedy's *Little Sparrow* (1983).
Sofya reduces to nine — the number of first female PhD in math.