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Maryam Mirzakhani, a professor of mathematics at Stanford, has been awarded the 2014 Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in mathematics. Mirzakhani is the first woman to win the prize, widely regarded as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics," since it was established in 1936.
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Mirzakhani was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. As a young girl she dreamed of becoming a writer. By high school, however, her affinity for solving mathematical problems and working on proofs had shifted her sights.</p>
<p>"It is fun – it's like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case," she said. "I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path."
<p>Brava! @texaspg I am shocked no previous winners have been female. Well…the Ergodic Theory class (Math 248) she teaches this fall may have a few more students signing up…that is…if they can handle it 8-} </p>
<p>Agreed. I am surprised that it took this long for the first woman to win the Fields…while it only took 2 years after its inception before the first woman (Marie Curie for Physics in 1903) to win a Nobel Prize…</p>
<p>…we can only wonder what she will accomplish in the future years…but, I think, one of the most important things she can do is bring even more women into the field of higher mathematics…</p>
<p>…as Marie Curie paved the way for future great female scientists…so can she in the field of mathematics…</p>
<p>She has a really bad birthday in terms of winning the Fields medal. She would actually be too old to be eligible next time they award the Fields Medal. She just turned 37 right now and the age cut-off is that you are 40 or younger at the end of the year it is awarded.</p>
<p>My daughter is an econ/math major and very much in the minority - Math is still dominated by men (she has not had one female math or econ teacher in college)</p>
<p>I just heard a report about this on NPR–All Things Comsidered. </p>
<p>They interviewed the female chair of the math department at the University of Nebraska. Nice to see that too. </p>
<p>She said that there have been other women worthy of the Fields before. Reminded me of how there were other. African Americans worthy of playing in the National or American League before Jackie Robinson. </p>
<p>And she said “only” one-third of math PhDs go to woman. I was actually surprised to see the number so high. I would have guessed a lower number. </p>
Saying that there have been other women worthy of the Fields Medal doesn’t imply discrimination, though. She may have meant that, but that statement doesn’t necessarily imply it. A lot of people thought Paul Erdos should have gotten a Fields Medal, but he didn’t. Most thought he was worthy. </p>
<p>It is more like a Nobel. There are about 300 gold medals every Olympics, and some are for not very impressive activities, like one-handed blindfolded downhill air pistol shooting and the like.</p>
<p>Compared to the Nobel in a specific discipline (e.g., chemistry), there are about 10X more Nobel Prizes handed out per year than there are Fields Medals. </p>
<p>Right, but in each field it probably averages about 1.7 per year (counting splits, which in some fields is really t common). The Fields average is 1 per year or a little less (since I believe they haven’t awarded four at every opportunity). So they are basically pretty equivalent.</p>