Maryam Mirzakhani obituary
by Martin Bridson from on (#2WVSB)
Iranian mathematician who was the first woman to win the Fields medal
In 2014 the Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, who has died aged 40 of cancer, was awarded the Fields medal, the discipline's most celebrated prize. The 52 previous recipients had all been men. Maryam won it "for her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces".
Surfaces are basic objects in mathematics, appearing in many guises. The surface of our planet is a sphere, but from local observations alone one cannot be sure of this: the Earth could be shaped like a bagel, for example, or a bagel with a few handles attached. A bagel-like surface is known in mathematics as a torus.
Continue reading...