Danuta Gierulanka
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Danuta Gierulanka (1909–1995) was a Polish mathematics educator, psychologist, philosopher, and translator. She was associated with Roman Ingarden and known for her work in phenomenology and the philosophy of mathematics.[1]
Gierulanka was born in Kraków on 30 June 1909; her father was a civil servant. She studied mathematics at the Jagiellonian University from 1927 to 1932, completing a master's degree with a thesis on Periodic solutions of differential equations, and stayed there for another year for a teaching credential. From 1933 to 1938 she worked as a high school teacher of mathematics, science, and philosophy at two Kraków gymnasia.[2]
Psychologist
Gierulanka returned to the Jagiellonian University in 1938, as a psychology student working in the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology with Władysław Heinrich.[1][2] Her studies were interrupted by World War II, during which she and her brother, physicist Jerzy Gierula, taught in secret. She completed her doctorate in 1947.[2] Her dissertation, O przyswajaniu sobie pojęć geometrycznych [On Grasping Geometrical Notions], was published as a book in 1958.[1][2]
Gierulanka remained at the Jagiellonian University, and in 1953 became an adjunct in mathematical analysis at the university, with the plan of writing a habilitation thesis combining mathematical analysis with psychology. However, this did not materialize and in 1957 she returned to the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology.[2]
