Somerville, Mary, n�e Fairfax 1780-1872
Scottish mathematician and astronomer

Born in Jedburgh, she was inspired by the works of Euclid and studied algebra and classics, despite strong disapproval from her family. From 1816 she lived in London, where she moved in intellectual and scientific circles and corresponded with foreign scientists. In 1826 she presented a paper on The Magnetic Properties of the Violet Rays in the Solar Spectrum to the Royal Society. In 1831 she published The Mechanism of the Heavens, her account for the general reader of Pierre Simon Laplace's M�canique C�leste. This had great success and she wrote several further expository works on physics, physical geography and microscopic science. She supported the emancipation and education of women, and Somerville College (1879) at Oxford is named after her.