Évariste Galois discovered mathematics as an adolescent and published his first original work at age 17. In his short life, Galois originated algebraic applications of finite groups, now known as Galois groups, and developed the foundations for the solvability of algebraic equations using rational operations and extraction of roots. His mathematical works have been credited as having transformed the theory of algebraic equations.

Galois was born October 25, 1811, at Bourg-la-Reine near Paris, the second of three children of Nicholas-Gabriel and Adelaide-Marie Demante Galois. His parents were well educated, although no one in the family is known to have excelled in mathematics. His father, an ardent republican and a composer of light verse, was director of a boarding school and was elected mayor of Bourg-la-Reine in 1815. His mother, who came from a family of jurists, had been trained in religion and the classics and was the only teacher Galois knew...