Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia (370 AD - 415 AD)
From Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers: Hypatia, by Elbert Hubbard, 1908.

Going way back to the year 370 AD in this post, we find ourselves learning about Hypatia of Alexandria, one of the world's first female astronomers and mathematicians. Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria who was also an astronomer and mathematician. He wrote about and preserved previous great works including those from Euclid and Ptolemy and tutored his daughter in mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. Hypatia continued her father's work of preserving Greek mathematical and astronomical heritage, commentating on Apollonius of Perga's Conics and Diophantus of Alexandria's Arithmetic. 

A woman of enormous intellectual power, Hypatia was also a popular teacher and lecturer and as such attracted numerous students and followers. She wrote and lectured on astronomy and included observational aspects of the field as well, such as the astrolabe. She also taught geometry and algebra which were complex subjects during her day. Because her father was Professor at the University of Alexandria, Hypatia was able to lead the life of a respected academic at Alexandria's university, which was previously only allowed for males. The great Library of Alexandria is said to have held 500,000 books on its shelves, and Hypatia would have had access to all of these works to stimulate her learning. Hypatia devoted her life to learning and teaching, and she had the outstanding ability to make difficult concepts easy to understand (something that is severely lacking in some universities today).