News of the week

Exciting news recently. A woman, ethnic Iranian, by the name Maryam Mirzakhani received the most prestigious award in mathematics, the Field medals or International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics.

In the long history of this award, since 1936, not even a single woman has won. So, this seems to be a rare occurrence, not only because of winning but also for proving that women are capable of pursuing mathematic, the discipline, at its highest level.

Maryam was born in Tehran in year 1977. Her undergraduate is from Sharif technology university and her Ph.D. in 2004 from Harvard University. She’s currently a professor at Stanford.

Guardian website has a story of how she became interested in mathematic.

Her success can be summed in following points, briefly:

• Interest and curiosity
• Having supportive parents
• Necessary background or fundamentals at a young age
• Realize what is still lacking within you
• Having the opportunity to pursue your interest and a complete freedom to dedicate your time and energy towards your passion
• ..move to a western country or to a nation that has a history of winning international awards?

References
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-13/maryam-mirzakhani-and-fields-medal-how-to-do-math-like-a-genius
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930522000799
http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Prizes/2014/news_release_mirzakhani.pdf