Nadezhda Nikolaevna Gernet (April 18, 1877, Ardatov - June 23, 1943, Leningrad) graduated from the St. Petersburg Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses, after which she completed a three-year mathematics course at the University of Gottingen with world-famous mathematician D. Gilbert. A female mathematician from Russia for her dissertation on the calculus of variations was awarded the diploma of a doctor of philosophy with honors. Teaching at the Bestuzhev courses and at the Women's Pedagogical Institute, in 1915 N.N. Gernet confirmed her scientific title when she successfully defended her master's thesis on the subject “On the Basic Simple Problem of the Variational Calculus” at Moscow University. The woman scientist has devoted her life to the science of mathematics. Thanks to hard work, she managed to make a discovery, which was later forgotten for many years: she developed a general algorithm for solving problems on extremum of functionals in the presence of simple or differential inequalities imposed on the desired functions and their derivatives. N.N. Gernet was distinguished by an active life position and attentive attitude towards students. In the Soviet period she taught at the Leningrad State University and the Polytechnic Institute.