Sophie Germain

Sophie Germain (1776–1831) taught herself mathematics from books while locked inside during the French Revolution. Because women were barred from the Paris Academy, she corresponded with Gauss under a male pseudonym, Marie-LeBlanc. When Gauss discovered the truth he wrote in admiration of her having overcome 'all the obstacles which prejudice has erected in her way.' She proved a special case of Fermat's Last Theorem for all primes less than 100, a result that stood for 150 years. She also founded the mathematical theory of elasticity.