SOPHIE GERMAIN

BIOGRAPHY:


Sophie Germain was Francoise Germain’s daughter, who became president of Paris Bank.

She was born on April in 1776, in paris and was a French mathematician physicist and philosopher, despite the initial opposition from her parents and difficulties presented by society; she had education from book in her father’s library including one by Leonhard Euler and from correspondence with famous mathematicians such as Lagrance, Legendre, and Gauss.


She lived in an age of preconception and chauvinism where if she wanted to realize her investigations, she needed to assume a fake identity, study in terrible conditions and work in a intelectual insolations.



LEGACY:

At beginning, she was one of the pioneers of elasticity theory and her work on fermat's last theorem was the root for hundreds of years later.

Because of prejudice against her sex, she was unable to make a career out of mathematics, but she worked independently throught her life.


Finally she died from breast cancer on June 27, 1831. Sophie Germain was a great example of a self- learning and tenacity, she had to introduce 3 times at Paris Science Academy but she never gave up. However, she was recognised with the gold medal and the Academy of Sciences established the Sophie Germain Prize in her honor.


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