Maryam Mirzakhani

Quick Introduction

About Maryam Mirzakhani

Maryam Mirzakhani was a worldwide famous Iranian mathematician and professor. Notably, she was a professor at Stanford University. She was born on 12th May 1977 in Tehran, Imperial state of Iran, and died on 14th July 2017. Her researches were mainly based on essential topics, such as hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and simplistic geometry. Maryam is considered the first Iranian woman who won the Fields medal, which is known as the most prestigious Award in mathematics. Besides, Maryam Mirzakhani was even the first woman in the world to receive this Award. Later, her research was added to "The Dynamics and Geometry of Riemann Surfaces and Their Moduli Spaces" by the award committee. She was a very talented student from childhood, and most of the time, she won medals and different prizes for the contests held in mathematics in her school days.

Early Life and Education

Maryam Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, Iran, where she completed her education. Maryam joined Tehran Farzanegan School, which was part of the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET), to make herself more knowledgeable in mathematics. When she was very young, she won gold medals in the Mathematics Olympiad. Later, she was able to qualify for the national college entrance exams. In 1994, she took part in the International Mathematical Olympiad, which was held in Hong Kong. In this examination, she scored 41 points out of 42 and won the gold medal. Maryam was the first woman from Iran to win the International Mathematical Olympiad.

The following year, in Toronto, she won two gold medals, and there she became the first Iranian woman to win the International Mathematical Olympiad with full marks. Maryam's first book 'Elementary Number Theory, Challenging Problems' was published in 1999. She was able to complete this work with the collaboration of Roya Beheshti Zavareh, an Olympiad silver medalist. Roya was a colleague and a good friend of Maryam. Maryam and Roya were both the first women from Iran to compete in the International Mathematics Olympiad and won gold and silver medals, respectively. They were good friends and were seen together most of the time later.

Unfortunately, on 17 March 1998, Mirzakhani and Zavareh were returning from a conference, and they met with an accident that killed seven passengers from Sharif University; this accident became a national tragedy in Iran. Mirzakhani and Zavareh were the two survivors out of the few which were escaped.

By the next year, in 1999, Mirzakhani completed her Bachelor's degree from Sharif University; she got the degree of Bachelor of Science in mathematics. During the days of Bachelor's, Mirzakhani got a lot of recognition for developing a proof of a theorem Schur. In 2004, Mirzakhani completed her PhD at Harvard University. A few days later, she served under Fields Medal winner Curtis T. McMullen. She was always considered a woman who worked with determination and dedication. Maryam always used to make her class notes in her native language, which was Persian.

Career

After completion of PhD in 2004 and after a lot of research work, Maryam became a professor at Stanford University in year 2009. In 2004, Maryam was one of the research fellows at Clay Mathematics Institute and was working as a professor at Princeton University.

Maryam's name is famous for outstanding research works. She also made a lot of contributions to the theory of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces. Her different researches are based on different fields of mathematics. She established many theorems and some simple proofs or explanations of the existing theorems.

Personal Life

Maryam Mirzakhani married Jan Vondrak in 2008; her husband is a Czech theoretical computer scientist and a mathematician. He is a professor at Stanford University. Mirzakhani and Jan Vondrak were blessed with a daughter. Maryam often shared her thoughts on mathematics, which were really amazing. Maryam said that "mathematics is a subject full of enjoyment, and one should solve problems with positive energy and effort". Maryam described that while solving problems, she used to draw doodles on the sheets of paper and write formulas around those drawings. Her daughter explained that her mother's works were like paintings because of the doodling structure of solving problems.

Awards

Maryam was awarded the most prestigious award in mathematics, the 'Fields Award' in 2014 for her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces. The award ceremony was organized at the International Congress of Mathematics in Seoul. At the time of the ceremony, her research works were explained to the audience by Jordan Ellenberg. In 1994, Maryam Mirzakhani received a Gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad, held in Hong Kong, and it was Mirzakhani's first gold medal. Then, in 1995, she again won the gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad, which was held in Canada.

Maryam received a lot of fellowships, which helped in her career. From 1995 to 1999, Maryam got an IMP fellowship in Tehran, Iran, a Merit fellowship from Harvard University in 2003, a Clay Mathematics Institute Research Fellow in 2004, and more. Maryam Mirzakhani received the AMS Blumenthal Award in 2009. Mirzakhani attended many seminars. In 2010, she was invited to talk at the International Congress of Mathematics on the topic 'Topology and Dynamical Systems and ODE'.

Mirzakhani was awarded with, 'Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics' in 2013. This Award is presented to the women who give outstanding contributions to mathematics by the American Mathematical Society. Maryam received the Award on 10th January 2013 in San Diego. She was honored with another award in 2013 called the Simons Investigator Award. In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani received two different awards; the first was the Clay Research Award, and the second was the Fields Medal. Later, she was elected as a foreign associate to the French Academy of Sciences in 2015, elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2015, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. Later, Asteroid 321357 Mirzakhani was named in memory of Maryam Mirzakhani.

Death

In 2017, Mirzakhani passed away on July 14th in Stanford, California, at the age of just 40 years. In 2013, Maryam was diagnosed with breast cancer, and by 2016, it spread to other parts of her body, such as the liver and bones. President Hassan Rouhani presented condolences and grief on Maryam Mirzakhani's death. Her scientific achievements and her research works were discussed later in brief. Most of the Iranian newspapers and citizens posted her photographs on their social media handles with uncovered hair, breaking taboos. The citizens and media of other countries also covered it. After Mirzakhani's death, 12 different initiatives were taken to celebrate her honor as a woman in mathematics, and in 2020, a documentary film was made in her honor.