Evariste Galois always intrigued me. He died aged 20 in a duel supposably for some love story, yet he apparently had "time" to lay the foundations of some pretty serious math. To quote the into from the last chapter of this book which introduces Galois Theory:<p>"[...] attempts to solve the general fifth-degree, or quintic, polynomial were repulsed for the next three hundred years [...] no solution like the quadratic formula was found for the general quintic [...] Finally, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Ruffini and Abel both found quintics that could not be solved with any formula. <i></i>It was Galois, however, who provided the full explanation by showing which polynomials could and could not be solved by formulas. He discovered the connection between groups and field extensions.<i></i> Galois theory demonstrates the strong interdependence of group and field theory, and has had far-reaching implications beyond its original purpose."<p>My mom was actually reading a novel about him (a beautiful mind kinda style) last summer. I wonder how he would have turned out if he had not passed away so young.<p>Surprisingly, the only other mathematician that died really young (aka younger than jim morrison and co) is Niels Henrik Abel, also mentioned in the quote. Makes you wonder how healthy algebra is, doesn't it ;p