Women’s History Heroes #4 – Sophie Germain
Today’s hero comes from Chuck who detailed the hero’s journey of Sophie Germain, one of the first female mathematicians. This is from his introduction (we could only find one picture – from when she was 14).
Sophie Germain was born in Paris, France on April 1, 1776. She was the second of three daughters of the wealthy French silk merchant, Ambroise-François Germain. Sophie lived an isolated existence at her family home and was supported financially by her father and his estate until her death. At the age of 13 Sophie became interested in mathematics and determined she wanted to become a mathematician. This was a profession and role reserved for men and Sophie’s choice was met with resistance.
Sophie forged ahead and would go on to complete significant work in number theory and provide a partial proof to Fermat’s Last Theorem. For prime exponents less than 100, she showed there could be no solutions relatively prime to the exponent. After 1808 Sophie became interested in Chladni figures, patterns produced by vibration. This work was foundational to the applied mathematics used in construction of skyscrapers today, and was important at the time to the new field of mathematical physics, especially to the study of acoustics and elasticity.
Sophie Germain was allowed to attend sessions at the Institut de France, the first woman with this privilege. Carl Friedrich Gauss had lobbied to have an honorary doctorate awarded to Sophie Germain by Göttingen University, but she died before it could be awarded. She died of breast cancer in Pairs, France on June 26, 1831.
RSS - Posts
