Inge Lehmann

Inge Lehmann was born and grew up in Østerbro, a part of Copenhagen. Her father was experimental psychologist Alfred Georg Ludvik Lehmann (1858–1921). She received her school education at a pedagogically progressive high school led by Hanna Adler,Niels Bohr's aunt.^[4][5] According to Lehmann, her father and Adler were the most significant influences for her intellectual development.

She studied mathematics at the University of Copenhagen and University of Cambridge, interrupted by poor health.^[6] She continued her studies of mathematics in Cambridge from 1910-1911 at Newnham College. In 1911, she returned from Cambridge feeling exhausted from the work and put her studies aside for a while. She developed good computational skills in an actuary office she worked in for a few years until she resumed studies at Copenhagen University in 1918. She completed the candidates magisterii degree in physical science and mathematics in two years. When she returned to Denmark in 1923, she accepted a position at Copenhagen University as an assistant to J.F. Steffensen, the professor of actuarial science

In 1929 Lehmann was studying a large earthquake near New Zealand and observed that some P-waves seemed to bounce off a boundary. This caused a higher frequency of seismic activity within a “shadow zone.” She attributed the phenomenon to an inner core made of different materials. Proven correct, the shadow zone today called the “Lehmann Discontinuity.”


source:wikipedia.