Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman recipient of the Fields Medal in mathematics, dies at 40
Iran-born mathematician Mirzakhani was battling with cancer. Photo credit: Stanford.edu
(Web Desk) - Maryam Mirzakhani died on Saturday at the age of 40, after a long battle with cancer. She was the first woman to win maths’ Fields Medal.
Mirzakhani an Iranian native was studying curved surfaces such as doughnut shapes and amoebas – to a degree that other bright minds in the field dared not explore, her colleges have said.
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Maryam Mirzakhani on "Dynamics on the Moduli Spaces of Curves", screengrab: YouTube
In 2014, she became the first woman to receive the Fields Medal in mathematics, the highest honor equivalent in status to the Nobel Prize. Before Mirzakhani all 52 recipients were men who won the honorable medal in the field of mathematics.
According to CNN, Stanford University President Marc Tessier- Lavigne said, “Maryam is gone far too soon, but her impact will live on for the thousands of women she inspired to pursue math and science.”
IMU (International Mathematical Union) called Mirzakhani’s accomplishments in complex geometric forms such as Riemann surfaces and moduli spaces “stunning”. “Because of its complexities and inhomogeneity, moduli space has often seemed impossible to work on directly,” the IMU said. “But not to Mirzakhani.”
She was happy to take it on.
Iranian Speaker Ali Larijani - using an older image of Prof Mirzakhani, said on Instagram that her loss "caused great regret."
“Mirzakhani specialized in theoretical mathematics that read like a foreign language by those outside of mathematics: moduli spaces, Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, Ergodic theory and symplectic geometry,” the Stanford press announcement said.
“Mastering these approaches allowed Mirzakhani to pursue her fascination for describing the geometric and dynamic complexities of curved surfaces spheres, doughnut shapes and even amoebas – in as great detail as possible.”
Iran’s president Hasan Rouhani said in a message reported by Tehran Times, “The grievous passing of Maryam Mirzakhani, the eminent Iranian and world-renowned mathematician, is very much heart-rending.”
Mirzakhani once described solving mathematical problems as, “like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks and with some luck you might find a way out”.
Maryam is survived by daughter Anahita, and her husband Jan Vondrák who is a theoretical computer scientist.
Maryam Mirzakhani with her family at ICM 2014, Seoul
