Ruth Moufang

Ruth Moufang
Born	January 10, 1905(1905-01-10) Darmstadt, Germany
Died	November 26, 1977(1977-11-26) (aged 72) Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Nationality	German
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Goethe University Frankfurt
Alma mater	Goethe University Frankfurt
Doctoral advisor	Max Dehn
Doctoral students	Hermann Heineken Christoph Hering Heinrich Lüneburg Rolf Schneider
Known for	Moufang plane Moufang polygon Moufang–Lie algebra

Ruth Moufang (January 10, 1905 – November 26, 1977) was a German mathematician.

Born to a German chemist Dr. Eduard Moufang and Else Fecht Moufang, she studied mathematics at the University of Frankfurt. In 1931 she received her Ph.D. on projective geometry under the direction of Max Dehn, and in 1932 spent a fellowship year in Rome. After her year in Rome, she returned to Germany to lecture at the University of Königsberg and the University of Frankfurt. Her research in projective geometry built upon the work of David Hilbert. She was responsible for ground-breaking work on non-associative algebraic structures, including the Moufang loops named after her.

Her most important contribution to the foundations of geometry was the discovery that if one replaces Desargues' theorem with the theorem of the complete quadrilateral (also known as the invariance of the fourth harmonic point) together with the incidence axioms of Hilbert, one obtains an alternative division algebra instead of a skew field.

Denied permission to teach by the minister of education of Nazi Germany, she worked in private industry until 1946, when she became the first woman professor at the University of Frankfurt.

References

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Ruth Moufang", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Moufang.html .
• Ruth Moufang at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
• "Ruth Moufang", Biographies of Women Mathematicians, Agnes Scott College

Persondata
Name	Moufang, Ruth
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 10, 1905
Place of birth	Darmstadt, Germany
Date of death	November 26, 1977
Place of death	Frankfurt am Main, Germany