The Math Genius Maryam Mirzakhani Passes Away
Maryam Mirzakhani, the first lady to win The Math’s Field Medal which is a nickname of Nobel Prize for Mathematics died in US after breast cancer spread in her bones. Prof. Maryam Mirzakhani, age 40, was an Iranian and in 2014, she was honored with the prize for her work on complex geometry and dynamical systems.
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Firouz Naderi, a former Iranian director of Solar Systems Exploration at NASA and a friend of Prof Mirzakhani posted on Instagram with words, “A light was turned off today. It breaks my heart… gone far too soon.”
Prof Mirzakhani was born in Tehran in 1977 and grew in Islamic Republic. In 1994 and 1995, she scored International Mathematical Olympiad’s gold medal twice. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Iran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology in 1999 and completed rest of her education as a doctoral degree from Harvard University, US in 2004. She became a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford at age 31.
The 40 year old, was also the first women to be elected in US’s National Academy of Science (NAS) in may 2016 for her ‘distinguished and continuing achievement in original research’.
Gary Lewis, UN Resident Coordinator for the Islamic Republic of Iran expressed, “Sad to learn about the passing of #MaryamMirzakhani – the intelligent #Iranian daughter, wife, mother, professor. May her eternal soul RIP”.
“I hope that this award will inspire lots more girls and young women, in this country and around the world, to believe in their own abilities and aim to be the Fields Medallists of the future,” says Prof Dame Frances Kirwan, who is a member of the Medal Selection Committee, University Of Oxford.
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