Joaquim Gomes de Souza "Souzinha" (15 February 1829, in Itapecuru Mirim – 1 June 1864, in London) was a Brazilian mathematician who worked on numerical analysis and differential equations.
He had a deep love for the natural sciences, which led him to also be interested in mathematics, and so he started to learn mathematics as a self-taught in parallel with his studies of medicine.In 1848, he obtained his doctorate in mathematics from the Escola Real Militar, with the thesis Dissertação Sobre o Modo de Indagar novos Astros sem o AuxĂlio das Observações Directas (Dissertation about the means of investigating new celestial objects without the aid of direct observations).
He later went to the Sorbonne, in France, where he continued his mathematical studies.
He was a personal friend of Cauchy, of whose classes he attended (in one of them, Souza spotted a mathematical mistake by Cauchy, he then asked his license and corrected it on the blackboard).
In 1856, he obtained a doctorate in medicine from Paris Faculty of Medicine.