Remembering Julia Robinson, the solver of Hilbert's 10th problem
Julia Robinson was an American female mathematician who played a major role in solving Hilbert’s tenth problem, together with Martin Davis, Hilary Putnam, and Yuri Matiyasevich. Her work is a crucial part of what is called the MRDP theorem, and she was also the first woman to be elected as president of the American Mathematical Society. On this occasion, we wish to look back on the life of a thinker who dedicated herself to a single problem for more than two decades, despite having to struggle with health problems throughout her life.
The final session in Oakland on July 30, 1985
The final chapter in the life of Julia Robinson ended when she passed away from leukemia on July 30, 1985, in Oakland, California, at the age of 65. She had been diagnosed with the disease during the summer of 1984 while serving as president at a meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Eugene, Oregon. After continuous treatment, her condition temporarily improved in the spring of 1985 before the disease relapsed and ultimately led to her death. She was survived by her husband Raphael Robinson, a professor at Berkeley, and two sisters.
Even though she received many honors, Robinson remained humble. She once wrote that what she truly was was a mathematician, and she wished to be remembered as a mathematician who proved theorems and solved problems, rather than being remembered as the 'first woman' in various matters.
A seriously ill girl who loves numbers
Julia Hall Bowman was born on December 8, 1919, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Ralph Bowers Bowman and Helen Hall Bowman. In her childhood, she suffered from severe scarlet fever, which required her to be isolated at home for up to a year. Later, it was also found that rheumatic fever had damaged her heart, causing her to have weak health and difficulty breathing throughout her life. Doctors had told her family that she might not be able to live beyond the age of 40.
Even though she was seriously ill, during the period she was quarantined, she received private tutoring from a home teacher and discovered her passion for numbers from that age. She continued her studies at San Diego State College before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley in 1939. There, she met Raphael M. Robinson, an assistant professor of mathematics, who became a close friend and whom she married in 1941. She completed her PhD in 1948 under the supervision of Alfred Tarski, a famous logician.
Two decades with Hilbert's 10th problem
The most important point in Robinson's career was dedicating himself to studying Hilbert's 10th problem, which David Hilbert proposed in 1900 regarding finding a general method to determine whether any Diophantine equation has an integer solution. Robinson began working on this problem since the late 1940s together with Martin Davis and Hilary Putnam, developing an idea called the 'J.R. hypothesis,' which was a crucial step that gradually led to the final solution.
For over 20 years, Robinson worked continuously to establish the mathematical framework necessary to solve this problem, until in 1970, a young 22-year-old Russian mathematician, Yuri Matiyasevich, was able to prove the final missing piece, demonstrating that no such general method actually exists. The collaborative work of these four mathematicians is now known as the MRDP theorem (an acronym derived from the surnames of Matiyasevich, Robinson, Davis, and Putnam), which is one of the most important achievements in mathematical logic in the 20th century.
Upon learning the news of Matiyasevich's success, Robinson felt very pleased and wrote him a letter of admiration. The two later became colleagues who deeply respected each other, even though they came from completely different political backgrounds during the Cold War.
The first woman in various important positions
Robinson was the first woman to be elected as a member of the mathematics section of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1976, and in 1982 she became the first woman to be elected president of the American Mathematical Society, which is one of the most prestigious positions in American mathematics. In 1983, she also received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.
Although the position of full professor at Berkeley came to her quite late in 1976 due to the anti-nepotism rules at the university at that time (because her husband was already a professor at Berkeley), when she finally received the position, she only had to take on one-fourth of the normal teaching load due to poor health.
A legacy that inspires future generations of female mathematicians
On the anniversary of her passing each year, the name Julia Robinson continues to be a major inspiration to later generations of female mathematicians, not only because she was the "first" in various positions, but because of her true dedication to one of the most difficult mathematical problems in history. Even while struggling with health limitations throughout her life, her story is proof that intellectual determination can beautifully overcome physical limitations.
