Maryam Mirzakhani, First Woman To Win Maths Highest Honor, Dies At 40

[still_one]

Maryam Mirzakhani, the 40-year-old Iranian that won math’s most prestigious prize, died Saturday after a four-year battle with breast cancer, the BBC reported.

Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal ― affectionately referred to as the “Nobel Prize for Mathematics” ― in 2014 for her work on dynamical systems and complex geometry. The award is given out every four years. Mirzakhani was the first woman and first Iranian to receive the honor since its creation in 1936.

Born in Tehran, Mirzakhani came to the U.S. to attend graduate school at Harvard University. At the time, she had become the first girl named on Iran’s team in the International Mathematical Olympiad and had already won gold medals in the 1990s, NPR reported.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maryam-mirzakhani-first-woman-to-win-highest-maths-honor-dies-at-40_us_596a4c8de4b03389bb17bd0a?l0a&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

[shenmue]

1. ...

[longship]

2. Oh no!!!

She was awesome!

[AngryAmish]

3. I lack the means to understand her work.

She was a true rarity, the only woman ever to earn the Fields Medal. To put it in perspective, John von Neumann did not win a Fields Medal.

I doubt there will be another in a long time.

[VermontKevin]

7. Us mere mortals do math with numbers. The gifted do math with letters. She knew all of them.

[crazylikafox]

4. So sad!

She was a schoolmate & occasional colleague of my son's. She was brilliant. I had no idea she was ill. What a waste.

[Hugin]

5. Aw, so young!

Tragic... A treasure of humanity lost.

[lunamagica]

6. This is so sad, so tragic

[burrowowl]

8. RIP!