Sophie Germain

1 April 1776 – 27 June 1831

Sophie Germain (1776-1831) was a French mathematician who, despite being barred from formal education as a woman, made significant contributions to number theory and the theory of elasticity. She corresponded with Lagrange, Legendre, and Gauss under the male pseudonym 'Monsieur Le Blanc', proved important cases related to Fermat's Last Theorem, and won the Paris Academy of Sciences' prize for her work on elastic surfaces.

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Life events

Born in Paris, France
1 April 1776

Germain was born into a prosperous bourgeois family on the Rue Saint-Denis in Paris.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Taught herself mathematics during the French Revolution
1789

Confined indoors during the Revolution, the thirteen-year-old Germain educated herself from her father's library, studying mathematics against her parents' wishes.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Obtained École Polytechnique lecture notes under the name Le Blanc
c. 1794

Barred from attending the newly opened École Polytechnique, she obtained lecture notes and submitted work to Lagrange under the pseudonym of a former student, M. Le Blanc.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Began correspondence with Carl Friedrich Gauss
November 1804

Writing as M. Le Blanc, she corresponded with Gauss about number theory; Gauss praised her warmly upon learning her true identity in 1807.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Developed key results toward Fermat's Last Theorem
c. 1805

Germain devised a general strategy and proved results for a class of prime exponents, work now associated with Sophie Germain primes and Germain's theorem.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Won the Paris Academy of Sciences prize for the theory of elastic surfaces
8 January 1816

On her third attempt, Germain won the Academy's grand prize for her mathematical theory of vibrating elastic plates, becoming the first woman to do so.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Became first woman admitted to Academy of Sciences sessions on her own merit
c. 1823

After her prize, Germain was permitted to attend sessions of the Institut de France, the first woman so honored who was not a member's wife.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Published memoir on the curvature of elastic surfaces
1831

She continued her research in elasticity and philosophy in her final years, publishing further papers despite illness.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Died of breast cancer in Paris
27 June 1831

Germain died at age 55; her death certificate listed her not as a mathematician but as a 'rentiere' (property holder).

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓