Meet Maryam Mirzakhani, the first female recipient of the most prestigious mathematics award

Meet Maryam Mirzakhani, the first female recipient of the most prestigious mathematics award

?????? ?????????? was an Iranian mathematician and a professor at Stanford University. She was born on May 3, 1977, in Tehran, Iran, and died on July 14, 2017, at the age of 40.

She was one of the greatest mathematicians of her generation. She was also a mother. In 2014, Mirzakhani became the first and only woman to date to win the prestigious Fields Medal, for her understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces, often described as Math’s Nobel Prize, the highest honor for a mathematician.

Mirzakhani’s work focused on several areas of mathematics, including geometry, topology, and dynamics. She made significant contributions to the study of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and their symmetries. Her work also had applications in fields such as physics, engineering, and computer science.

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Despite facing many obstacles and gender-based discrimination in her field, Mirzakhani was a pioneer for women in mathematics. She was a role model for many young women and girls who aspire to pursue careers in STEM fields.