Person: Peixoto, Marília
Marília Chaves Peixoto was the first Brazilian woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics. In 1951 she was the first Brazilian woman to be elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. She made substantial contributions to what is now known as Peixoto's Theorem on the structural stability of dynamical systems.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Manchete was a Brazilian weekly news magazine published from 1952 and in its first year, in the fifth issue on 24 May 1952, it published an interview with Marília Chaves Peixoto.
- The Colégio Andrews had been founded by Isabella Robinson Andrews in 1918 and she was still running the school when Marília Chaves studied there.
- When Marília Chaves studied there the college had around 1500 pupils in Primary, Secondary and "Superior" courses, which prepared students, both boys and girls, to enter the schools of Medicine, Law and Engineering.
- Marília was by this time intent on studying mathematics and was taking the "Superior" course at the Colégio Andrews preparing to enter the National School of Engineering at the University of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
- Marília qualified for entry in 1939 to the National School of Engineering and achieved third place among the 73 students approved for entry.
- The presence of women in engineering schools was not very common at the beginning of the century, but in 1939 Marília de Magalhaes Chaves was enrolled at the National School of Engineering ...
- At the National School of Engineering, Maurício Matos Peixoto and Leopoldo Nachbin were both her fellow students, all three beginning their studies in the same year.
- Marília's influence was very strong during these "golden years" ...
- Both Marília Chaves and Leopoldo Nachbin were important influences in my becoming a mathematician.
- In 1943 Marília Chaves graduated with a civil engineering degree but she never intended to have a career as an engineer.
- Mathematics was always the subject for her and throughout her engineering course Marília Chaves, Maurício Peixoto and Leopoldo Nachbin all studied advanced mathematics.
- In 1949, Marília Peixoto took part in the competition to become a professor of Infinitesimal Calculus at the National School of Engineering.
- This thesis was accepted for a doctorate in mathematics making Marília Peixoto the first Brazilian woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics.
- Marília Peixoto was appointed to the professorship at the National School of Engineering where she taught differential and integral calculus.
- On 1 July 1951 Marília Peixoto was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
- Marília Peixoto was elected as an associate member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences becoming the first Brazilian woman to be elected to the Academy.
- At what angle to the horizontal does the observer see the rain fall?" Three years after Marília Peixoto died, the book was republished with a Preface by Maurício Peixoto.
- They decided that, in due time, he should prepare a presentation on Structural Stability in the Seminar he directed, which had the participation of Marília, selected students and teaching assistants of the Chair of Mechanics.
- Solomon Lefschetz was very interested in their work and Maurício and Marília Peixoto, with support from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, visited Princeton in 1957-58.
- Instead of belittling me for my ignorance of mathematics, Marília started teaching me.
- This was one of four papers on the structural stability of dynamical systems, the other three being by Maurício Peixoto, which produced what today is known as Peixoto's Theorem.
- Marília Peixoto died on 5 January 1961.
- A number of honours have been given to Marília Peixoto after her death.
- A street in her home town of Sant'Ana do Livramento is named Rua Marília Chaves Peixoto.
- In 1969 he had been awarded the Moinho Santista Award by the Bunge Foundation for Peixoto's Theorem and he used the money from the award to fund the school.
- On land donated by Dr Túlio, the Municipal School Marília Chaves Peixoto was inaugurated in 1971.
- in addition to the unquestionable value of the research she developed, Marília Peixoto bravely broke through a virulent and ingrained discourse that dislodged women from dedicating themselves to certain areas of knowledge and certain work activities, a discourse normally based on the idea of existence of an unequivocal relationship between biological attributes of gender, in which the female is limited to the exercise of domestic functions and a very small number of professions, usually with lower social prestige and remuneration.
- By becoming a leading professional in an area considered, until then, as exclusively male, mathematician Marília Peixoto opens a precedent of dignity for all Brazilian women, who still remain in the fight for equality in the field of formal study and work.
Born 24 February 1921, Santana do Livramento, Brazil. Died 5 January 1961, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Brazil, Women
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
