Julia Robinson: Early Life and Education

JULIA ROBINSON
Julia Hall Bowman Robinson was born on December 8, 1919 and passed away on
July 30, 1985. She was an American mathematician best known for her work on
decision problems and Hilbert's tenth problem.
Early Life and Education :
Julia Robinson was born on the 8 December 1919 to Ralph Bowers Bowman and
Helen Bowman, in St. Louis Missouri. Her family moved to San Diego where she
attended San Diego High. Julia developed late and was a late talker. She
developed Rheumatic fever as a young child which is basically pain and swollen
joints this is known to affect children mostly.Despite developing late and suffering
from Rheumatic disease Julia continued to shine academically unfortunately poor
health followed her with her academic success. She often had suffered from
shortness of breath. In 1961 she went under surgery t o remove her mitral valve
which is between the left atrium and left ventricle of the heart. The operation was
successful and learning from that experience she adopted a healthy lifestyle which
included cycling and various physical activity.
At the University of Berkeley while study number theory she met her future
husband Raphael M. Robinson.They married in 1941. Due to rules that fall under
nepotism her marriage to Robinson prevented her from teaching in the
mathematics department in Berkeley.
In 1984 , She was diagnosed with leukamia.She underwent treatment and for a
while it made her feel better but unfortunately returned at a much more aggressive
pace and she died in1985.
She would then later attended San Diego University. In 1936 as a senior she was
transferred to University of Berkeley, California, where she later received her BA
in 1940. In 1948 she received her PH.D working with Alfred Tarski.
Involvement in Poltics:
Julia had a great interest in politics in 1952 from the campaign of Aldai Stevenson.
In 1950s she was very involved in the local Democratic party. She stuffed
envelopes, rang doorbells, asked for votes.She support Alan Cranston in his
attempt to run for office.
Mathematical Efforts:
She wrote a thesis showing that the notion of integer cannot be defined
arithmetically in terms of notion of a rational number and the operations of
multiplication and addition on the rational. The arithmetic of rational is therefore
adequate for the formulation of all problems of elementary number theory.
In 1948 Robinson began work on the tenth problem on Hilbert's famous list: "to
find an effective method for determining if a given Diophantine equation is
solvable in integers."
Although she also published papers on a variety of questions, the tenth problem
was to occupy the largest portion of her professional career.
Her early results took on added importance in 1961 with the publication of a joint
paper with Martin Davis and Hilary Putnam in which it was proved that every
recursively enumerable set is existentially definable in terms of exponentiation and
that, therefore, there is no algorithm for deciding whether an exponential
Diophantine equation has a solution in natural numbers.
In view of her earlier proof that exponentiation is existentially definable in terms
of any function of roughly exponential growth, the negative solution of Hilbert's
problem was reduced to finding an existential definition of such a function.
In 1970, a young mathematician in Leningrad, Yuri Matuasevic, completed the
proof.
She Began heavily obsessed with solving the problem and spent great deal of her
life trying to solve it. Robinson along with the help of
Martin Davis, Hilary Putnam, and Yuri Matiyasevich resolved this problem in the
negative; that is, they showed that no such .
algorithm can exist.
In 1975, Robinson became the first woman mathematician to be elected to the

National Academy of Sciences, and, in 1983, she became the first woman president
of the American Mathematical Society. Her other honors included election to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a grant from the MacArthur Foundation,
and an honorary degree from Smith College. She died in 1985.
Thera is a festival named after her the "Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival"
Its aim are to have a less competitive atmosphere than other competitions its aims
to encourage learners to fully develop their math potential by solving math's
problems tens of thousands people of all ages enter the competition every year
There is also a documentary of Julia Robinson entitled " Julia Robinson and
Hilbert's Tenth problem" which focuses on quest to solve it.
She is highly regarded for her part in solving the problem.
After she died in 1985 many tributes were made from past colleagues
Lists of Awards and Awards:
United States National of Sciences was the first female mathematician elected
1975
1982- Noether Lecturer
1983- MacArthur Fellowship
1983-1984 First female president of American Mathematical Society
1985 American Society of Arts and Society member
Math festival named after that.
The reason why I picked Julia Robinson because through my research I found her
on the list of female mathematicians and she seemed the most interesting because
she was a twentieth first century mathematician and had a very interesting
personal life.
A link to a video about the Julia Robinson mathematic festival.
https://youtu.be/Idow6vKyaXg

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JULIA ROBINSON

Early Life and Education :

algorithm can exist.

In 1975, Robinson became the first woman mathematician to be elected to the

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