Sophie Germain Wins Paris Academy Prize

On this day Sophie Germain was the first woman to win a prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences for her paper on elasticity. Although fascinated by mathematics from an early age, opposition from her parents and the fact that women were barred from attending university, meant that Sophie was obliged to devise ways of studying from her home and through correspondence with famous mathematicians under the pseudonym of Monsieur LeBlanc. Although eventually unmasked, she found support for her work in the leading mathematicians Lagrange, and later Gauss, and on her third attempt was finally awarded the Grand Prize in Mathematics.

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