Person: Rasiowa, Helena
Helena Rasiowa was an Austrian-born Polish mathematician who worked in algebraic logic and the mathematical foundations of computer science.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- In 1918 Poland regained its status as an independent nation and Rasiowa's parents moved to Warsaw.
- Rasiowa entered the University of Warsaw in 1938 but, after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the university closed.
- Rasiowa and her parents moved to Lwów (now Lviv in Ukrains) but the Poles were trapped between the Soviets and the Germans and Lwów came under Soviet control.
- In this dangerous situation Rasiowa learnt mathematics, knowing that the penalties for being discovered were extreme.
- Yet in this environment Rasiowa studied for her Master's Degree under Łukasiewicz's supervision.
- Rasiowa's thesis burned together with the whole house.
- After the war Rasiowa taught in a secondary school while her supervisor Łukasiewicz left Poland after the terrible suffering he had gone through.
- Mostowski however remembered Rasiowa's impressive work and persuaded her to return to the University of Warsaw to complete a second Master's Thesis under his supervision.
- Rasiowa was promoted steadily, reaching the rank of Professor in 1957 and Full Professor in 1967.
- Of course Rasiowa's work on algebraic logic was in precisely the right area to make her a natural contributor to theoretical computer science.
- In 1984 Rasiowa introduced an important concept of inference where the basic information was incomplete.
- Rasiowa wrote over 100 papers, books and monographs.
- Rasiowa remained active right up to her death, having completed eight chapters of a new monograph Algebraic analysis of non-classical first order logics before entering hospital with her final illness.
Born 20 June 1917, Vienna, Austria. Died 9 August 1994, Warsaw, Poland.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Austria, 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
