Born: Dec 26, 1780, Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland. Died: Nov 29, 1872, Naples, Italy

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Mary Somerville studied Euclid with the help of her younger brother's tutor. She married at the age of 24 but her husband died 3 years later. After this she won a prize from a mathematical journal. Married again at the age of 32, she lived in London and often visited Paris, meeting many scientists.

She published papers in physics and is famous for her translation of Laplace's Méchanique Céleste published in 1831. Most of the rest of her life was spent in Italy where she wrote many works which influenced the physicist, William Clerk Maxwell. Her discussion of a hypothetical planet perturbing Uranus led John Adams to his investigation, resulting in discovery of this planet.

Somerville also published a treatise on Finite Differences and various other books on 'popular science'. Somerville College in Oxford was named after her.