Mathematician. She was born to wealthy Serbian parents in Titel, Voyvodina which at that time was under the rule of the Austro-Hungary Empire but today is part of Serbia. Mileva Maric was a brilliant student from her first day in primary school where at age seven was reading, doing math while fluent in Serbian and German. Her father seeing this potential but hampered by Empire rules against high school education for girls, persisted and gained dispensation which allowed her to attend an all boys gymnasium in Zagreb. Mileva was sent to Switzerland where she was accepted at the Polytechnic the only woman in the physics and mathematics department. Here she met and married Albert Einstein entering into an unhappy marriage, mistreated by her eccentric husband who prized her as chattel. Mileva participated in her husband's scientific work as acknowledged in letters written by him. She is now deemed a co-creator of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Albert divorced Mileva in 1919 leaving her to fend for herself and two sons but did provide significant financial support. She remained in Zurich living frugally with her children giving private lessons in mathematics, physics and the piano. The proceeds from the Nobel Prize was given to her by Albert as part of the divorce agreement and partially invested in three income producing rental houses but she later sold them and the proceeds from two of them were exhausted by expensive medical costs. The third was sold in 1948 and the proceeds of 85,000 Swiss francs were found under her mattress when she died later that year. She died at the age of 73 and was interred in a Zurich cemetery with no marker.
Mathematician. She was born to wealthy Serbian parents in Titel, Voyvodina which at that time was under the rule of the Austro-Hungary Empire but today is part of Serbia. Mileva Maric was a brilliant student from her first day in primary school where at age seven was reading, doing math while fluent in Serbian and German. Her father seeing this potential but hampered by Empire rules against high school education for girls, persisted and gained dispensation which allowed her to attend an all boys gymnasium in Zagreb. Mileva was sent to Switzerland where she was accepted at the Polytechnic the only woman in the physics and mathematics department. Here she met and married Albert Einstein entering into an unhappy marriage, mistreated by her eccentric husband who prized her as chattel. Mileva participated in her husband's scientific work as acknowledged in letters written by him. She is now deemed a co-creator of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Albert divorced Mileva in 1919 leaving her to fend for herself and two sons but did provide significant financial support. She remained in Zurich living frugally with her children giving private lessons in mathematics, physics and the piano. The proceeds from the Nobel Prize was given to her by Albert as part of the divorce agreement and partially invested in three income producing rental houses but she later sold them and the proceeds from two of them were exhausted by expensive medical costs. The third was sold in 1948 and the proceeds of 85,000 Swiss francs were found under her mattress when she died later that year. She died at the age of 73 and was interred in a Zurich cemetery with no marker.
Bio by: Donald Greyfield
Inscription
"CA ПОНОCОM И ЉУБABЉУ ОД CPПCKOГ НАРОДА
MIT STOLZ UND LIEBE VOM SERBISCHEN VOLK
REPUBLIC OF SERBIA - MINISTRY FOR DIASPORA"
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