Sophie Germain: mathématicienne extraordinaire - Scripps College

Abstract
Sophie Germain lived in Paris during the French Revolution. She educated
herself about circulating theories in what we now call number theory
by collecting lecture notes from the newly created École Centrale des
Travaux Publics in Paris, now called l’École Polytechnique, and by corresponding
with Gauss, Legendre, and other mathematicians–all under the
pseudonym, M. Le Blanc. Her contributions to the theory of vibrating elastic
plates has influenced the way we think about these surfaces even now.
In addition, Cases 1 and 2 of Fermat’s Last Theorem developed following
publications of Legendre’s version of Germain’s proof. She proved the first
case of Fermat’s Last Theorem for all primes under 100 and for primes p
where q = 2p + 1 is also prime; hers is considered one of the first “good
approaches” to Fermat’s Last Theorem.