SOPHIE GERMAIN

 

Marie-Sophie Germain was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and one of the pioneers of elasticity theory. She was also well known for number theory. Women were not permitted to study especially mathematics and sciences. Despite opposition from her parents initially and difficulties presented by society, she gained education from books in her father's library. Her mother secretly supported her studies. She learned through correspondence with famous mathematicians like Joseph Louis Lagrange, Adrien Marie Legendre, and Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss under the pseudonym of Monsieur Le Blanc, the name of a former male student. Fortunately, Lagrange did not mind that Germain was a woman, and he became her mentor. Her paper on the theory of numbers was rejected by the Paris Academy of Sciences because Germain was a woman. She did not stop. She became the first woman to win the Paris Academy of Sciences grand prize for her essay on the theory of elasticity on 8 January 1816. With prejudice against her sex as a woman, she could not make her career in mathematics. But worked independently in her life. In addition to mathematics, Germain studied philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Just before her death, Gauss recommended her an honorary degree. But was never given. Her work on Fermat's Last Theorem provided a foundation for mathematicians for hundreds of years. Born on 1 April 1776 in Paris, France, Germain died of breast cancer (attacked in 1829) on 27 June 1831 at 55.