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She was born to a middle-class merchant family in Paris, France, and began studying mathematics at age thirteen, despite her parents' strong attempts to dissuade her from engaging in a 'men's profession'. Several years later, she managed to get some lecture notes from several courses at Ecole Polytechnique, a school which did not admit women.
Germain was particularly interested in Joseph-Louis Lagrange's teachings and submitted papers and assignments under the pseudonym "Monsieur Le Blanc", a former student of Lagrange's. Lagrange was so impressed by the paper that he asked to meet Le Blanc, and Germain was forced to reveal her identity to him. Lagrange apparently considered her a talented mathematician and became her mentor.
In 1804 she began corresponding with Carl Friedrich Gauss, again using her pseudonym, after reading his famous Disquisitiones Arithmeticae ( 1801). He eventually learned her true identity in 1806Events January 8 Cape Colony becomes a British colony January 10 Dutch in Cape Town surrender to the British January 19 The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope March 23 After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocea, when Napoleon Bonaparte was invading PrussiaThe word Prussia ( German: Preussen (Preussen Polish: Prusy Lithuanian: Prusai Latin: Borussia has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and Gauss's birthplace, BrunswickBraunschweig may also refer to the administrative region of Germany. See Braunschweig (region). Brunswick may refer to several geographic locations, companies and products. See Brunswick (disambiguation). Braunschweig [ˈbraunʃvaik] (English:. Fearful that Gauss would meet a fate like that of ArchimedesSee also Archimedes computer, Archimedes (disambiguation). Archimedes of Syracuse (circa 287 BC 212 BC), was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, physicist and engineer. He was killed by a Roman soldier during the sack of the city, despite orde, Germain requested that General Pernety, a friend of hers, personally ensure Gauss's safety. The general explained to Gauss that Germain had asked that he be protected, which confused Gauss since he had never heard of her. She then wrote to him admitting she was female, to which he responded:
But how to describe to you my admiration and astonishment at seeing my esteemed correspondent Monsieur Le Blanc metamorphose himself into this illustrious personage who gives such a brilliant example of what I would find it difficult to believe. A taste for the abstract sciences in general and above all the mysteries of numbers is excessively rare: one is not astonished at it: the enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a person of the sex which, according to our customs and prejudices, must encounter infinitely more difficulties than men to familiarize herself with these thorny researches, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, then without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius. Indeed nothing could prove to me in so flattering and less equivocal manner that the attractions of this science, which has enriched my life with so many joys, are not chimerical, the predilection with which you have honored it.
However, in 1808Events January 1 Importation of slaves into the United States is banned February 11 Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally. February Russia issues an ultimatum to Sweden, to join France, Denmark and Russia and attacks Finland. March 26 Charl Gauss was appointed professor of astronomy at the University of Göttingen. His interest shifted to applied mathematicsApplied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with the application of mathematical knowledge to other domains. Such applications include numerical analysis, mathematics of engineering, linear programming, optimization and operations, and he stopped replying to her letters.
In 1811 Germain entered the French Academy of Sciences's contest to explain the underlying mathematical law of a German mathematician, attempting to explain Ernst Chladni's study on vibrations of elastic surfaces. After failing twice she finally won in 1816, thus bringing her into the ranks of great mathematicians. She became the first female to attend sessions at the French Academy of Sciences—excepting the wives of other members.
One of Germain's major contributions to number theory was the following mathematical proof: if x, y, and z are integers, and x5 + y5 = z5 then either x, y, or z has to be divisible by five. This proof, which she first described in a letter to Gauss, became quite significant as it restricted the possible solutions of Fermat's Last Theorem.
Her central contributions to mathematics were in the fields of number theory and elasticity theory. One significant item is the concept of the Sophie Germain prime, which is a prime number p where 2p+1 is also prime.
With prompting from Gauss, in 1830 the University of Göttingen agreed to award Germain an honorary degree, but before she received it she died of breast cancer on June 27, 1831.
Proof, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play by David Auburn, contains references to Germain.
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