Hélène Cartan

Hélène Cartan (1917–1952) was a French mathematician, daughter of Élie Cartan and sister of Henri Cartan. In 1937, she entered the École Normale Supérieure on the rue d'Ulm, then in principle reserved for men, and passed the agrégation in 1940. After taking up a secondary-school teaching post, she conducted research in topology alongside her teaching and presented a paper to the Académie des Sciences in 1942. Her career was prematurely cut short by tuberculosis, which claimed her life in 1952. She was among the women scientists who paved the way for women's access to France's major higher-education institutions.