#fields medal

Maryna Vyazovska from Kyiv, who solved the mathematical problem of packing spheres in eight-dimensional space, received the Fields medal, one of the highest world awards in the field of mathematics.

It should be added that previously only the problem of three-dimensional space was solved, the solution took up three hundred pages. Maryna proved hers in twenty-three pages, and she did it impressively elegantly.

June Huh wasn’t interested in mathematics until a chance encounter during his sixth year of college. Now his profound insights connecting combinatorics and geometry have led to math’s highest honor.

June Huh often finds himself lost. Every afternoon, he takes a long walk around Princeton University, where he’s a professor in the mathematics department. On this particular day in mid-May, he’s making his way through the woods around the nearby Institute for Advanced Study — “Just so you know,” he says as he considers a fork in the path ahead, “I don’t know where we are” — pausing every so often to point out the subtle movements of wildlife hiding beneath leaves or behind trees. Among the animals he spots over the next two hours of wandering are a pair of frogs, a red-crested bird, a turtle the size of a thimble, and a quick-footed fox, each given its own quiet moment of observation.

“I’m very good at finding stuff,” he says. “That’s one of my special abilities.”

Huh, 39, has now been awarded the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics, for his ability to wander through mathematical landscapes and find just the right objects — objects that he then uses to get the seemingly disparate fields of geometry and combinatorics to talk to each other in new and exciting ways. Starting in graduate school, he has solved several major problems in combinatorics, forging a circuitous route by way of other branches of math to get to the heart of each proof. Every time, finding that path is akin to a “little miracle,” Huh said.

One might say the same of his path into mathematics itself: that it was characterized by much wandering and a series of small miracles. When he was younger, Huh had no desire to be a mathematician. He was indifferent to the subject, and he dropped out of high school to become a poet. It would take a chance encounter during his university years — and many moments of feeling lost — for him to find that mathematics held what he’d been looking for all along.

John Charles Fields (May 14, 1863 – August 9, 1932) was a Canadian mathematician and the founder of the Fields Medal for outstanding achievement in mathematics. Fields is best known for his development of the Fields Medal, which is considered by some to be the Nobel Prize in Mathematics, although there are differences between the awards. First awarded in 1936, the medal was reintroduced in 1950 and has been awarded every four years since. It is awarded to two to four mathematicians, under the age of 40, who have made important contributions to the field.

Women in Science: Maryam Mirzakhani

As we lead up to the release of Battling in All Her Finery, we’re featuring a handful of women in science from history. Check back in the coming weeks to learn more about early women scientific leaders, and check out Battling in All Her Finery when it releases on October 16!

Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician who was the first woman and first Iranian to receive the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics.

Maryam Mirzakhani, a Stanford University professor who was the first and only woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics, has died. She was 40.

Mirzakhani, who battled breast cancer, died on Saturday, the university announced. It did not indicate where she died.

In 2014 Mirzakhani was one of four winners of the Fields Medal, which is presented every four years and is considered the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize. She was named for her work on complex geometry and dynamic systems.

“Mirzakhani specialized in theoretical mathematics that read like a foreign language by those outside of mathematics: moduli spaces, Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, Ergodic theory and symplectic geometry,” according to the Stanford press announcement. “Mastering these approaches allowed Mirzakhani to pursue her fascination for describing the geometric and dynamic complexities of curved surfaces, spheres, doughnut shapes and even amoebas — in as great detail as possible.”

Maryam Mirzakhani, A Candle Illuminating The Dark

“Perhaps Mirzakhani’s most famous contribution, in tandem with her frequent collaborator Alex Eskin of the University of Chicago (and later with Amir Mohammadi as well), was the so-called “Magic Wand Theorem,” published in 2013. Painstakingly developed over several years by piecing together and extending the work of many other mathematicians, it offered a litmus test for determining the orbital dynamics of systems, given certain properties of the space housing them and any obstacles within. Very quickly, the theorem found applications to the billiard problem, the wind-tree puzzle, and the illumination problem (showing when patches of darkness are inevitable). Like magic, one could calculate the diffusion rates of a wide range of systems, given the overall shapes and configurations involved, instead of having to compute the individual trajectories.”

Only a few weeks ago, pioneering mathematician and the first (and only) woman to win the Fields Medal, Maryam Mirzakhani, tragically died of cancer at the young age of 40. Her brilliant work had applications to a huge variety of problems, from the periodic and/or chaotic motions of billiard balls to the question of designing a room that, even if completely covered by mirrors, could never be illuminated by a single candle. Her life and her work were cut short by disease, but the story of both is truly an inspiration, as well as a testament to the power of creative thinking and the capabilities of the human mind. The pursuit of knowledge knows no national, racial, or gendered borders, and Maryam Mirzakhani’s life was a testament to that.

We were gutted to learn about the death of mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani over the weekend. Prof. Mirzakhani is the only woman (and only Iranian person) to have been awarded a Fields Medal, often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics, but only awarded every four years and to mathematicians under 40 years old. Prof. Mirzakhani received the Fields Medal in 2014, and just turned 40 this past May.

The world has lost a ground-breaking and glass-ceiling-shattering mathematician far, far, too soon.

Image by @rachelignotofsky