Mary Somerville  (1780 – 1872)  was a remarkable self-taught Scottish mathematician and scientist. The famous Oxford women’s college Somerville  was named after her. She has just been selected to have her portrait featured on a new Scottish £10 note, see the  interesting article  on P.22 of the January 2016 LMS newsletter by Brigitte Stenhouse, who has been researching her papers which are deposited in the Somerville college archives.

Elisabetta Strickland has just published a book The ascent of Mary Somerville in 19th century society  and there is another recent book  Mary Somerville and the World of Science by Allan Chapman.