Sophie Germain decided when she was 13 that she wanted to study mathematics. Despite all efforts by her parents to prohibit her from such masculine subjects, she persisted in teaching herself Greek, Latin, and Calculus. When she was 18, the Ecole Polytechnique erroneously printed lecture notes for a departed student named Monsieur Le Blanc. Assuming his identity, Germain submitted answers to problems and corresponded with the mathematician Joseph LeGrange. Eventually, LeGrange learned Germain's true identity and mentored her in mathematics.
Germain continued to use M. Le Blanc's identity to correspond with the greatest mathematician of her time, Carl Gauss, when she took on the task of Fermat's Last Theorem. From there, she moved on to physics (acoustics and elasticity). She is widely celebrated today as a giant intellectual who loved math for the sheer joy of it.
NOVA: Math's Hidden Woman
San Diego Supercomputer Center: "Sophie Germain: Revolutionary Mathematician"
University of St. Andrews
Wolfram Research
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