Pierre de Fermat

French mathematician. Born in Beaumont-de-Lomagne, near Toulouse, on Aug. 20, 1601. He studied at the University of Toulouse and then at the University of Orléans, where he received a law degree. Fermat pursued many activities in addition to his profession as a lawyer and legislator in Toulouse. He enjoyed some reputation as a classicist and poet but devoted most of his spare time to mathematics, the field in which he earned lasting renown. He died in Castre, France on Jan. 12, 1665.
Fermat's Last Theorem asserts that the equation xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ has no solution in the rational integers for n>2. For n=1 or 2 the equation has infinite sets of solutions. Fermat himself outlined a proof for the case n=4. A general proof for n>2 was found by Andrew Wiles.