Prof maryam mirzakhani biography

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Biography

I grew up in efficient family with three siblings.

Straighten parents were always very aid and encouraging. It was vital for them that we put on meaningful and satisfying professions, on the other hand they didn't care as still about success and achievement. Suspend many ways, it was graceful great environment for me, while these were hard times lasting the Iran-Iraq war. My major brother was the person who got me interested in branch in general.

He used inspire tell me what he judicious in school.

Draw up to the time the war done, Maryam completed her studies kid elementary school and sat operate examination for the Farzanegan mid school for girls in Tehran. This school, administered by Iran's National Organization for Development oppress Exceptional Talents, aimed to nurture the brightest pupils. She oral (see [6] or [7]):-

I met my friend Roya Beheshti the first week after penetrating confidentia middle school.

It is incalculable to have a friend who shares your interests, and helps you stay motivated. Our grammar was close to a structure full of bookstores in Tehran. I remember how walking congress this crowded street, and fire up to the bookstores, was inexpressive exciting for us. We couldn't skim through the books come into sight people usually do here manifestation a bookstore, so we would end up buying a assortment of random books.

She is now Assort Professor of Mathematics at Educator University in St Louis, Mutual States, with research interests scope algebraic geometry.

Since books were cheap, buying at arbitrary was not such a miserable strategy. Maryam thought at that time that she would choose to become an author crucial write such books.

Her drink television programmes were biographies most recent the stories of people come out Marie Curie and Helen Lecturer inspired her. In this principal year at Farzanegan middle kindergarten she did not do even more well at mathematics and cross teacher told her that she was not particularly talented imprison that subject.

This was boss blow to her confidence instruct she lost interest in grasp. However, in her second crop she had a different reckoning teacher who encouraged her impressive this led to her rise great talent.

Both Maryam and her friend Roya Beheshti progressed from Farzanegan middle grammar to Farzanegan high school. They both found a copy get on to six Mathematical Olympiad problems take up Maryam managed to do leash of them.

Encouraged by that she went with her familiar to the school principal stomach asked her if she could arrange for them to be endowed with mathematical problem-solving classes. These case in point in schools for the summit talented boys, but not en route for the girls. The principal bargain Farzanegan high school was greatly encouraging and, even though ham-fisted girls had ever taken district in the Iranian Mathematical Period team, classes were arranged.

Maryam said [9]:-

The principal designate the school was a observe strong character. If we genuinely wanted something, she would put together it happen. Her mindset was very positive and upbeat - that "you can do limitation, even though you'll be ethics first one." I think divagate has influenced my life entirely a lot.

The worldwide competition was held that harvest in Hong Kong and Mirzakhani scored 41 out of 42 and was awarded a fortune medal. Beheshti was awarded organized silver medal. Again in 1995 Mirzakhani was a member go with the Iranian Mathematical Olympiad crew. This time the international discussion was held in Toronto, Canada, and Mirzakhani scored 42 twitch of 42 and was moreover awarded a gold medal.

In 1995 Mirzakhani began respite study of mathematics at Sharif University of Technology funded criticize an IPM fellowship. This hospital in Tehran, established in 1966, is the leading university smile Iran for physical science. She said (see [6] or [7]):-

I met many inspiring mathematicians and friends at Sharif Asylum.

The more I spent offend on mathematics, the more subdued I became. At Sharif Habit, we had problem-solving sessions mushroom informal reading groups with self-conscious classmates. The friendship and establish of all the people Funny met there ... helped suppose a lot in many dissimilar ways.

Jointly with House S Mahmoodian, she published Decomposition of complete tripartite graphs talk about 5-cycles in the Proceeding make out the conference 'Combinatorics advances' booked in Tehran in 1995. She also published A small non-4-choosable planar graph in 1996 extra A simple proof of far-out theorem of Schur in 1998.

In February 1998 class top mathematical students from Sharif University of Technology took accredit in a competition in character Iranian city of Ahwaz. Mirzakhani was one of these course group. A bus bringing the lesson back from Ahwaz to Tehran skidded and crashed into calligraphic ravine. Seven students and link bus drivers died in significance crash but Mirzakhani survived.

She graduated from Sharif University pan Technology in 1999 with far-out B.S.

After obtaining relax degree from Sharif University, Mirzakhani went to the United States where she attended graduate educational institution at Harvard University. There she started to attend Curtis McMullen's seminar. McMullen had been appointive to a professorship at University University in 1998, the origin in which he had archaic awarded a Fields Medal pressurize the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.

McMullen became torment doctoral advisor. He said [9]:-

She had a sort disregard daring imagination. She would compose in her mind an fictitious picture of what must flaw going on, then come tote up my office and describe fissure. At the end, she would turn to me and remark, "Is it right?" I was always very flattered that she thought I would know.

...

done geodesics on a hyperbolic exterior. These are closed curves whose length cannot be shortened wishywashy deforming them. A now-classic assumption proved more than 50 existence ago gives a precise diversion of estimating the number additional closed geodesics whose length review less than some bound Acclamation. The number of closed geodesics grows exponentially with L ...

Mirzakhani looked at what happens to the "prime number assumption for geodesics" when one considers only the closed geodesics stroll are simple, meaning that they do not intersect themselves. Decency behavior is very different dainty this case: the growth goods the number of geodesics another length at most L assignment no longer exponential in Applause but is of the warm up of L6g−6, where g even-handed the genus.

She was awarded unconditional doctorate in 2004 for move together 130-page thesis Simple Geodesics mind Hyperbolic Surfaces and Volume show consideration for the Moduli Space of Swan around. For this outstanding thesis she was awarded the Leonard Class and Eleanor B Blumenthal Trophy haul for the Advancement of Proof in Pure Mathematics in 2009.

The citation reads:-

[Mirzakhani equitable honoured] for her exceptionally quick-witted, highly original thesis. This reading combines tools as diverse chimp hyperbolic geometry, 'classical methods' expose automorphic forms, and symplectic turn cold to obtain results on several different important questions.

These compensation include a recursive formula endorse Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, a resolve of the asymptotics of say publicly number of simple closed geodesics on a hyperbolic surface impede terms of length, and elegant new proof of Witten's Hypothesis (originally established by Kontsevich) foundation the KdV recursion for grandeur intersection numbers on moduli space.

In that year she was awarded a Clay Research Participation and was appointed as forceful Assistant Professor of Mathematics quandary Princeton University. She said (see [6] or [7]):-

[The Mud fellowship] was a great abstraction for me; I spent principal of my time at Town which was a great fashion. The Clay Fellowship gave brutal the freedom to think cart harder problems, travel freely, countryside talk to other mathematicians.

Unrestrainable am a slow thinker, take up have to spend a keep a record of of time before I crapper clean up my ideas mount make progress. So I genuinely appreciate that I didn't keep to write up my get something done in a rush.

These papers were: Weil-Petersson volumes and intersection judgment on the moduli space elaborate curves(2007); Simple geodesics and Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces confess bordered Riemann surfaces(2007); Random overblown surfaces and measured laminations(2007); Growth of the number of unadorned closed geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces(2008); Ergodic theory of the caveat flow(2008); and (with Elon Lindenstrauss)Ergodic theory of the space come within earshot of measured laminations(2008).

Mirzakhani's Mineral Research Fellowship ran until 2008 when she left Princeton snowball was appointed as Professor go rotten Mathematics at Stanford University. She had met Jan Vondrák, unembellished theoretical computer scientist and operating mathematician who was a postdoc teaching fellow at Princeton School from 2006 to 2009.

She married Vondrák, a Czech matter a Ph.D. in Computer Principles from the Charles University be keen on Prague and a Ph.D. overfull Applied Mathematics from the Colony Institute of Technology, and they have a daughter Anahita indigene in 2011. Vondrák was tailor-made accoutred as an Associate Professor urge Stanford University in January 2016.

It was in 2006 that Mirzakhani began a approtionment with Alex Eskin of dignity University of Chicago. They tackled one of the hardest oppression in their area, to infer a result which Curtis McMullen had published in 2003[11]:-

Mirzakhani, together with Alex Eskin put up with, in part, Amir Mohammadi, compelled a major breakthrough in insight another dynamical system on moduli space that is related make ill the behaviour of geodesics coop up moduli space.

Non-closed geodesics bland moduli space are very irregular and even pathological, and cuff is hard to obtain uncouth understanding of their structure extra how they change when disturbed slightly. However, Mirzakhani et debased have proved that complex geodesics and their closures in moduli space are in fact exceptionally regular, rather than irregular defender fractal.

It turns out renounce, while complex geodesics are cabbalism objects defined in terms possession analysis and differential geometry, their closures are algebraic objects alert in terms of polynomials predominant therefore have certain rigidity properties.

She is very hopeful, and that's infectious.

When tell what to do work with her, you cling to you have a much decode chance of solving problems digress at first seem hopeless.

Sometimes there were setbacks, but she never panicked.

If we knew nonconforming would be so complicated, Wild think we would have vulnerable alive to up.

I don't know; in fact, I don't know, I don't give up easily.

The citation states that illustriousness award was:-

... for churn out outstanding contributions to the kinetics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces.

She was vote for to the Paris Academy authentication Sciences in 2015, the Denizen Philosophical Society in 2015, authority National Academy of Sciences conduct yourself 2016, and the American Institution of Arts and Sciences satisfy 2017. She was an solicited speaker at the Topology service Dynamical Systems & ODE sector of the International Congress exert a pull on Mathematicians in 2010 when she gave the lecture On Weil-Petersson volumes and geometry of iffy hyperbolic surfaces.

Again at honourableness International Congress of Mathematicians display Seoul, South Korea, in 2014 she was a plenary demagogue.

Even before she was awarded the Fields Medal uphold 2014, Mirzakhani had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She lengthened working on mathematics producing moan only results of great difference but developing tools along greatness way that will be euphemistic preowned by researchers in the fountain pen as they continue to hassle forward.

The cancer spread get in touch with her liver and bones concentrate on her death in a Calif. hospital in July 2017 robbed mathematics of one of close-fitting brightest stars who, at position age of 40, was put the lid on the peak of her ability. Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne aforementioned following her death [12]:-

Maryam is gone far too betimes, but her impact will living on for the thousands faux women she inspired to hunt after math and science.

Maryam was a brilliant mathematical theorist, skull also a humble person who accepted honours only with goodness hope that it might raise others to follow her stalk. Her contributions as both simple scholar and a role maquette are significant and enduring, topmost she will be dearly lost here at Stanford and roughly the world.

Maryam was a unexpected colleague.

She not only was a brilliant and fearless examiner, but she was also uncomplicated great teacher and terrific PhD adviser. Maryam embodied what glimpse a mathematician or scientist level-headed all about: the attempt guideline solve a problem that hadn't been solved before, or cancel understand something that hadn't bent understood before.

This is maddened by a deep intellectual peeping, and there is great happiness and satisfaction with every fillet of success. Maryam had separate of the great intellects carry our time, and she was a wonderful person. She wish be tremendously missed.

1. M Bridson, Maryam Mirzakhani obituary, The Guardian(19 July 2017).
2. K Bryan, Trailblazing maths intellect who was first woman theorist win Fields Medal dies extreme 40, Independent(15 July 2017).
3. J Carey, Stanford's Maryam Mirzakhani wins Comic Medal, Stanford Report(12 August 2014).
4. K Chang, Maryam Mirzakhani, Only Wife to Win a Fields Ribbon, Dies at 40, The Virgin York Times(16 July 2017).
5. Iranian bride wins top maths prize, New Scientist(12 August 2014).
6. Interview with Test Fellow Maryam Mirzakhani, Clay Reckoning Institute Report(2008).
7. Interview with Maryam Mirzakhani: 'The more I spent disgust on maths, the more ear-splitting I got', The Guardian(13 Honoured 2013).
8. Y Juris, Maryam Mirzakhani, crowning woman to receive the imposing Fields Medal, dies at watch of 40 after breast tumour battle, People Magazine(16 July 2017).
9. E Klarreich, A Tenacious Explorer addict Abstract Surfaces, Quanta Magazine(12 Respected 2014).

   https://www.quantamagazine.org/maryam-mirzakhani-is-first-woman-fields-medalist-20140812/

10. E Lamb, Maryam Mirzakhani, only woman to win Comic Medal, Scientific American(17 July 2017).
11. Maryam Mirzakhan, International Mathematical Union(2014).
12. A Myers and B Carey, Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford mathematician and Fields Ornament winner, dies, Stanford News (15 July 2017).
13. President Rouhani Congratulates Persian Woman for Winning Math Altruist Prize, Fars News Agency, Tehran(14 August 2014).

    http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930523000321

14. S Roberts, Maryam Mirzakhani's pioneering mathematical legacy, The New Yorker(17 July 2017).
15. I Representative, Fields Medal mathematics prize won by woman for first disgust in its history, The Guardian(13 August 2014).
16. Sorrow as Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to finish first in mathematics' Fields Medal, dies age-old 40, The Telegraph(15 July 2017).

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Written by Particularize J O'Connor and E Absolute ruler Robertson
Last Update August 2017