First Female “Mathematician’s Nobel Prize” Winner

Professor Maryam Mirzakhani has become the first person from Stanford University in the US to have won the Fields Medal since 1966. But more than that she has made history by becoming the first female recipient of the coveted award.

Otherwise known as the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, or the Mathematician’s Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal is colloquially named after mathematician John Charles Fields, who was instrumental in its creation. The award is presented to between two and four maths experts at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) which takes place every four years.

This year, the event took place in Seoul and saw four medals given out: Professor Mirzakhani was awarded one for her work on complex geometry, while another medal went to UK mathematician Professor Martin Hairer for his work on randomness. The other two recipients were Dr Artur Avila from Brazil who earned a PhD at the tender age of 21 and Princeton University’s number theorist Professor Manjul Bhargava.

First awarded in 1936, the Fields Medal has been awarded to 56 winners in total, so it goes to show that Professor Mirzakhani’s accomplishment as the first woman to be honoured with the medal certainly has been a long time coming.

While growing up in Tehran, Iran, Professor Mirzakhani dreamt of becoming a writer until she realised her passion for solving maths problems. “It’s fun. It is like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case,” she explained. “I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path.”

Her work primarily focuses on dynamical systems and geometry, and although it is mostly theoretical and so considered pure mathematics, the work has implications for quantum field theory and physics.

One of the members of the medal selection committee was Professor Dame Frances Kirwan, who said that while 40% of UK maths undergraduates are female and despite women being major players in what is generally viewed as a male-dominated profession, the number of female mathematicians drops rapidly after PhD level and beyond. “I hope this award will inspire more girls and young women... to believe in their own abilities and aim to be Fields Medallists of the future.”

“This is a great honour,” said Professor Mirzakhani upon receiving the award. “I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians, [and] I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years.”