Since 1936 the International Mathematical Union (IMU, in English) has issued the first medal Fields – the one considered Nobel Prize Discipline – The coveted price has passed into the hands of 56 scholars. Hands of Europeans, Americans, Asians, Africans and Oceanics. In the middle of the cold war, she was caressed by Soviet and American fingers.

In 1970, the world was recovering from the announcement Since the separation of the Beatles, IMU brought together academics from Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United States. the USSR to issue the medal. Throughout its more than 80 years of history, the "Nobel" of mathematicians has come to the set of a physicist and there is even one who has given up, as he has done. eccentric and brilliant Russian Grigori Perelman. In this long list of more than fifty laureates however there is only one woman : the Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani one of the the brightest mathematics of the early twenty-first century. Today marks the first anniversary of his death

Mirzakhani broke the taboos in Iran

The image of Mirzakhani of August 13, 2014, while receiving the Fields Medal of the former president of South Korea (Park Geun-Hye) is already part of the photographic archives of the History of Sciences in capital letters as well as the photo of the Congress of Solvay of 1927 or the family snapshot of 1902 in which you see the three Nobel Laureates of the Curie family: Marie, Pierre and their daughter Irene

In a way like Mary or Irene, Mirzakhani is remembered for his great scientific achievements, but also for his example. In 2014, she not only became the first woman to receive the Fields Medal . In 80 years of the history of the award, he also distinguished himself as the first Iranian to have reached . The pride felt by the country to see his compatriot with the Nobel mathematics in his hands made his society skip some taboos.

As reported The Confidential after the death of the scientist, in 2014 the Iranian media – the ISNA agency, for example – published photos of the undisclosed girl . The phenomenon was repeated in 2017, when Maryam's face smiled again without hijab covers of national newspapers.

An Inspiration for Women Scientists

Mathematics Not Only Crossed the Walls of the Cultural Genre The Struggle That He Led Against Breast Cancer Aggressive That Was Going to End His Life in 2017 – with 40 years – has also made him a point of reference. Mirzakhani was diagnosed in 2013, months before collecting the highest academic recognition she could choose and a few years after giving birth to her daughter.

When in 2014 he wore the medal in Seoul his condition Fragile health forced him to limit exposure to the media, thirsty to seek the testimony of the first woman – and Iranian! – on the stand to receive the Fields . has left inspiring testimonials. "I will be happy if it encourages women scientists and young mathematicians. I am sure that there will be many more women who will win this kind of awards in the coming years, "explained the winner.

Despite his battle with the disease, Mirzakhani relapsed from a cancer that has already affected your bone marrow The professor at the University of Toronto and friend of Maryam, Kasra Rafi explains in 2017 to the journal Nature how he found his colleague during a visit at the end of 2016. [19659015] "We walked from his home in Palo Alto to the Stanford Math Department to listen to a lecture […]. We stopped every few minutes to rest on a bench, "revealed the teacher." Maryam told me that she did not want to take long-term leave because of her illness. and that would like to continue with his responsibilities as editor of Journal of the American Mathematical Society . I could not help but talk to him about the mathematical problems he was thinking of and despite all that had happened in his life, he was happy to listen and offer useful ideas. Seven months later, the cancer exhausted his forces

In an article published as an obituary in Quanta Magazine Moira Chas The Mathematics of the University of Stony Brook, evokes the energy and humanity They marked the character of the Iranian. "After one of his lectures, we walked together." Suddenly, a girl's voice came out of the room and Maryam shouted, "Anahita!" The voice belonged to her daughter. "The exclamation of Maryam enlightened This seemed totally different from what I had done during the conference, and all his humanity was in the exclamation, "he said.

The other wicker that intertwined in his character was – according to those who knew it – an exemplary modesty . "Maryam is distinguished as a brilliant theoretician of mathematics and also a humble person who has accepted honors only in the hope that it would serve to stimulate others to continue their way, "revealed after his death Marc Tessier-Lavigne president of Stanford University, at BBC .

Letters to numbers and formulas

Where does it come from? Mirzakhani? Like many great scientists, such as Marie Lavoisier or Caroline Herschel – the path happened to her in a certain way. Child, Maryam was very clear: wanted to become a writer become a potter of words to shape with them other worlds, characters and stories. For a time, she let herself be carried away by this literary passion, until one day – while she was still at school – one of her three elder brothers told him the lesson she had learned that morning in mathematics . The girl was captivated by this parade of figures and formulas

The crut of Maryam with mathematics last until his last day. After bursting into his native Tehran in a computer contest, he began a blistering career. He attended the NODET High School (National Organization for the Development of Outstanding Talents) of Farzanegan, in 1994 and 1995 he won the gold medals of the International Mathematical Olympiad and four years later Later he obtained his title in the Technological University of Sharif (Tehran).

His talent did not go unnoticed for large foreign centers dedicated to research. From Iran he made the jump to Harvard (USA), where he received his doctorate in 2004 with a groundbreaking dissertation in the field of hyperbolic geometry . Over the next four years, she worked as a researcher at the Clay Mathematics Institute and a math assistant in prestigious Princeton classrooms. When he was just 31, he joined the faculty of Stanford University. In 2009 and 2013, he added two new awards to his library: the Blumenthal Award of the American Mathematical Society and Ruth Lyttle Satter which recognizes since 1991 great women mathematicians .

The Fields, the most coveted metal by academics, which showcases the great talents under 40 years would reach a climax in 2014 for the advances of Mirzakhani in "Riemann Surfaces and Modular Spaces". "It's like being in the jungle and using all the knowledge you have to find a way out," he commented on his grueling search for solutions. Throughout her life she did not lose the spark of creativity which led her to write child stories

Another snapshot that fixed her to the The story's retina shows it kneeling on the floor and with a concentrated expression as it scribes outlines on a large sheet spread on the stage. "It's fun, it's how to solve a puzzle or connect the dots in a detective case," he confessed.