Iranian math mastermind passes away

Globally-famous Iranian math scientist Maryam Mirzakhani has passed away after suffering from cancer in a US hospital.

Mirzakhani, the first-ever female winner of the prestigious Fields Medal prize, was hospitalized at a hospital in the US for depreciating health conditions caused by cancer return.

Iranian-American NASA scientist Firouz Michael Naderi and one of her relatives confirmed the news on passing away of Mirzakhani.

Earlier, Spokesman of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bahram Ghasemi said all Iranians are proud of the genius mathematician and pray for her well-being.

Expressing his hope for full recovery of Dr. Mirzakhani, one of the most prominent contemporary mathematicians, Ghasemi added Iran is ready to deliver any sort of assistance in this regard.

Born in 1977 in Tehran, Mirzakhani won gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad (Hong Kong, 1994) and the International Mathematical Olympiad (Canada, 1995).

She received a BS in mathematics from Iran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology in 1999 and then went to the US where she earned her PhD degree from Harvard University in 2004.

In 2008, the math-wiz became full professor of mathematics at Stanford University at the age of 31.

Mirzakhani received the Blumenthal Award from the American Mathematical Society in 2009, the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics in 2013, and the Clay Research Award in 2014.

The most important part of her achievements was her 2014 Fields Medal, viewed as the highest honor a mathematician can receive, which is given every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40. She won the prize in recognition of her contributions to the understanding of the symmetry of curved surfaces.

MG/AI