1. Math Blast
From the Past

2. Sophie Germain
( )
Sophie Germain was born in an era of revolution. In the year of her birth, the American Revolution began. Thirteen years later the French Revolution began in her own country. In many ways Sophie embodied the spirit of revolution into which she was born. She was a middle class female who went against the wishes of her family and the social prejudices of the time to become a highly recognized mathematician. Like the member of a revolution, her life was full of perseverance and hard work. It took a long time for her to be recognized and appreciated for her contributions to the field of mathematics, but she did not give up. Even today, it is felt that she was never given as much credit as she was due for the contributions she made in number theory and mathematical physics because she was a woman.

3. At the age of thirteen, Sophie read an account of the death of Archimedes at the hands of a Roman soldier. She was moved by this story and decided that she too must become a mathematician.
On the establishment in 1795 of the Ecole Polytechnique the great French technical university , which women could not attend, Germain befriended students and obtained their lecture notes. She submitted a memoir to the mathematician J. L. Lagrange under a male student's name, M. LeBlanc . Lagrange saw talent in the work, sought out the author, and was bowled over to discover it had been written by a woman. She continued to study, corresponding with leading mathematicians of the day.

4. Early in her career, Sophie Germain made an important breakthrough on Fermat's Last Theorem. Many people are familiar with a related concept, Pythagoras' theorem:
x2 + y2 = z2 . In his theorem, Pierre de Fermat posited that there were no known solutions to the following equations, but claimed that a proof existed even though he never wrote it down:
x3 + y3 = z3
x4 +y4 = z4
x5 + y5 = z5
x6 + y6 = z6 .
xn + yn = zn
Germain focused on all the equations in which n is a prime number. Specifically, she was interested in all prime numbers p in which 2p + 1 is also a prime number (i.e., 2, 3, 5, 11, 23, 29, 41, 53, 83, 89, 113, 131). She also showed that for values of n equal to these Germain primes, there were "probably" no solutions to the equation: xn + yn = zn. Germain's work is considered to be her greatest contribution

5. Life
Sophie Germain was born in Paris on April 1, 1776 to Ambroise-Francois and Marie Germain. Her family was quite wealthy. Her father was a merchant and later became a director of the Bank of France
Sophie's interest in mathematics began during the French Revolution when she was 13 years old and confined to her home due to the danger caused by revolts in Paris.
From the onset her parents opposed her interest. They deemed her enthusiasm so inappropriate for a young woman that they denied her heat and light to prevent her from studying. They even confiscated her clothing at night, but she wrapped herself in blankets and used a hidden supply of candles to read from. Such was her passion that her parents finally conceded.

6. In 1804, Sophie began corresponding with the German mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss. She was intrigued with his work in number theory and sent him some of the results of her work in number theory. Again she used her pseudonym to disguise her true identity. It was not until 1807 that he found out who M. LeBlanc truly was. He was thrilled to find that his "pen pal" was a very gifted woman.
Her works earned her a First Class Honorable mention by the French Academy of Sciences in This prize elevated her mathematical status considerably. She published Memoir on the Vibrations of Elastic Plates which became well known. She also published works on the nature, bounds and extent of elastic surfaces, and the principles of analysis used in the solution of the problem of elastic surfaces. She was the first woman, not a wife of a member, to attend sessions of the Academy of Sciences.
Sophie Germain died at the age of 55, on June 27, 1831, after a battle with breast cancer. Shortly before this Gauss, one of her earliest mentors, had convinced the University of Gottengen to give Sophie an honorary degree. She died before she could receive it.

7. More Women Mathematics
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia
Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes
Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace
Washington, D.C.
Italy
Ellen Ochoa
Winifred Edgerton Merrill
England
1958 to present
La Mesa, California
Ripon, Wisconsin