The son of a Berlin banker, I was "home-schooled" by my uncle; when I did go to a school, I was placed in graduating class at age 12...but could not graduate as University students had to be 16.

Thus, I remained in the same class "graduating" class for 4 more years, receiving highest awards for Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics (doing my own research on the solution of quintic equations by radicals).

Entering the University at age 16, I obtained my doctorate in Berlin for a thesis on partial fractions.

Then, as a lecturer in mathematics at Konigsburg, I produced new results involving elliptic functions and hyper-elliptic integrals.

In 1841, I published a paper that established the idea of determinants and their properties.

At this time, I creatively applied function theory to number theory, using elliptic functions to prove Fermat's claim that any integer is the sum of the squares of 4 or less integers.

From 1843 on, my physical troubles started; I suffered a breakdown and became quite ill...first searching for a cure in Italy then returning to Berlin where I contracted smallpox and died.