Maryam Mirzakhani(1977 — 2017)
Maryam Mirzakhani
États-Unis, Iran
7 min read
Maryam Mirzakhani est la première femme à avoir remporté la médaille Fields en 2014, la plus haute distinction en mathématiques. Née en Iran, elle a révolutionné la compréhension des surfaces de Riemann et de la géométrie hyperbolique. Professeure à Stanford, elle est décédée d'un cancer à seulement 40 ans, laissant une œuvre mathématique majeure.
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers. »
« I don't have any particular recipe. It is the reason why doing research is challenging as well as attractive. »
Key Facts
- Née à Téhéran en 1977, elle remporte deux fois la médaille d'or aux Olympiades internationales de mathématiques (1994, 1995)
- En 2004, elle obtient son doctorat à Harvard sous la direction de Curtis McMullen, lui-même lauréat de la médaille Fields
- En 2008, elle est nommée professeure titulaire à l'Université de Stanford
- En 2014, elle devient la première femme et la première Iranienne à recevoir la médaille Fields, pour ses travaux sur la dynamique et la géométrie des surfaces de Riemann
- Elle décède d'un cancer du sein le 14 juillet 2017 à l'âge de 40 ans
Works & Achievements
Her thesis revolutionizes the understanding of simple geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces and establishes a formula for Weil-Petersson volumes. It was published as three articles in major journals.
Article published in Inventiones Mathematicae, derived from her thesis, considered one of her foundational works. It gives a recursive formula of great elegance.
Work on the earthquake flow on Teichmüller spaces, deepening the understanding of Riemann surfaces in connection with Hamiltonian mechanics.
In collaboration with Alex Eskin, this work counts closed geodesics in moduli spaces, a long-standing open problem in geometry.
Nicknamed the "magic wand theorem" by the mathematical community, this spectacular result describes the orbits of the SL(2,R) group on moduli spaces, with deep applications in dynamics.
Anecdotes
As a child, Maryam Mirzakhani dreamed of becoming a writer, not a mathematician. It was only after discovering, in middle school, that she was capable of solving difficult problems with a simple sheet of paper that she changed course. She liked to say that mathematics was for her like telling stories.
In 1994 and 1995, Maryam won two gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad, achieving a perfect score on her second participation. She was the first Iranian woman to accomplish this feat, paving the way for many young girls from her country.
Her working method was distinctive: she would cover large rolls of paper laid on the floor with colorful drawings and doodles. Her daughter called her 'the mom who makes paintings'. For Maryam, mathematics had an almost artistic and visual dimension.
In 2014, at the ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, Maryam Mirzakhani received the Fields Medal — the highest distinction in mathematics. She remains to this day the only woman and the first Iranian to have received this prize, sometimes nicknamed the 'Nobel of mathematics'.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, Maryam Mirzakhani continued working until the end of her life. She passed away on July 14, 2017, at the age of 40, leaving behind a considerable body of work and a grieving global mathematical community. The Iranian government, despite its strict rules, published her photo without a veil as a tribute to her.
Primary Sources
« The more I spent time on maths, the more excited I became. I think I'm quite lucky that I fell in love with it, but it was not by design. »
Foundational article from her doctoral thesis at Harvard, in which Mirzakhani establishes a recursive formula for computing the Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces with boundaries.
« I don't have any particular recipe. It is the reason why doing research is challenging as well as attractive. It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks. »
« Maryam was a brilliant mathematical genius who also turned out to be an inspiring role model for countless young people around the world who aspired to follow in her footsteps. »
Key Places
Maryam Mirzakhani's hometown, where she grew up, attended Farzanegan High School (a school for gifted students), and discovered her passion for mathematics.
Where Maryam earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics. This university trains Iran's scientific elite and opened the doors to leading American universities for her.
Maryam completed her doctoral thesis here under the supervision of Curtis McMullen. Her thesis on Weil-Petersson volumes was recognized as a major breakthrough.
Where Maryam was a professor from 2008 until her death in 2017. It is here that she accomplished her most important work on the dynamics of surfaces.
The city where the International Congress of Mathematicians was held in 2014, during which Maryam received the Fields Medal before the global mathematical community.
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Thèse de doctorat — Simple geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces
2004
Simple geodesics and Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of bordered Riemann surfaces
2007
Ergodic theory of the earthquake flow on quadratic differentials
2008
Counting closed geodesics in moduli space (avec Alex Eskin)
2011
Isolation, equidistribution, and orbit closures for the SL(2,R) action on moduli space (avec Alex Eskin et Amir Mohammadi)
2015
