11 ms·
Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman and Iranian to win Fields Medal, has died
- lr4444lr 9y agoTerrible to lose such a notable person at age 40 due to breast cancer, diagnosed when she was in her mid-30s no less.
- urahara 9y agoShe was absolutely brilliant in so many ways, what a loss.
- adyavanapalli 9y agoOh no :/ Such a terrible loss..
- brian_herman 9y agoCan we get a black bar for this?
- 0xFFC 9y agoIranian here, one point I really want to mention is following despite our theocratic regime, really I have to mention, Iran is not Suadi Arabia or anything like that. Girls and Boys do get the almost exactly same education, they have great opportunity to be a successful scholar in any branch of science they want (yes, It is like USA, your parent demographic will decide which university you most like end up into. But this issue is the issue of most part of the world and we cannot blame Iran, USA or any specific country for this, we should blame the system). She got her bachelor degree from one of our top universities (Sharif University) and went to Harvard from there and there is plenty of science-eager students like her are there waiting for an opportunity to become next Maryam Mirzakhani. Come to Tehran. I know you hear a lot of bad thing about Tehran and Iran from Right wing political media outlets. But believe me, you are going to see Paris of the middle east and whole new generation of liberal people who believe in personal freedom and freedom of speech. It really bothered me when I saw her talking about how people of USA think about Iran as desert and all women wearing an abaya. No they are not, we are a new generation and we are different and although our regime tries its best to suppress us, we are the future of Iran.
- carsongross 9y agoMore and more Americans understand that anti-Iranian sentiment here is mainly due to propaganda, not any rational considerations. Iran should be a natural ally of the US.
- acjohnson55 9y agoThe Iranian hardliners do a lot to stoke that flame too. Much like us, they have a polarized society. Their support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other problematic groups complicates things too. Add to that the fact that it would be tough to repair the rift with Iran, while managing our Saudi relationship. All that said, I think it's a worthy undertakings to normalize relations with Iran. And selfishly, I look forward to the day when I can freely visit Persia as an American.
- curiousgal 9y agoHonest question, how does Iran's support for Hezbollah and Hamas directly affect Americans? I'd argue that Saudi Arabia's support for ISIS and Al-Qaeda had more/actual negative effects on Americans.
- thebooktocome 9y agoThey affect Israel. For better or for worse, Israel has a special relationship with the US. Obama had tried to moderate it over the past eight years, but...
- davidf18 9y agoIt was Israel that bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor. If it had not, Iraq would have had nuclear weapons making action against Iraq very difficult. It is Israel that tests US weapons systems in real world combat situations giving a tremendous amount of feedback to improve the weapons systems. The Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun": It was Israel that stole the MIG fighter jet that enabled our government to understand the operating characteristics so as to train US higher pilots to fight the MIGs. Israel serves as an "aircraft carrier" for the US where many, many weapons are stored. US troops train with Israelis. It is Israeli drone which protect NATO troops in Afghanistan including German troops. Israel is the 3rd largest exporter of weapons technology to India after US and Russia.
- jacobkg 9y agoI remember how excited I was when she received the award as a role model for women and immigrants, and a reminder of how great minds can come from places the US considers enemies. My wife (33) spent most of last year being treated for Breast Cancer (now in remission). This news makes me profoundly sad.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- MichaelBurge 9y agoIt looks like her research is here: http://math.stanford.edu/~mmirzakh/Research.html http://math.stanford.edu/~mmirzakh/Research.html And the paper in question that got the Fields Medal might be one of these: http://math.stanford.edu/~mmirzakh/Papers/VA.pdf http://math.stanford.edu/~mmirzakh/Papers/VA.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.5574.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1206.5574.pdf It looks like her work involved counting the number of equivalent paths between two points on surfaces that have been punctured.
- dbranes 9y agoCurtis McMullen describes Mirzakhani's prize-winning work here http://www.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/papers/home/text/papers/icm14/icm14.pdf http://www.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/papers/home/text/papers/icm... and as a talk at 2014 ICM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC7MZv1JH8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC7MZv1JH8w
- mrkgnao 9y agoI hope to study (non-inter-universal) Teichmueller theory some day, as a side quest on my own journey (which is vaguely directed in some sense toward number theory at present). It's the best way I can think of to honor her memory: to learn to appreciate the ideas that she devoted her life to understanding better. Here is a picture of her drawing on one of her vast sheets of paper. https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2014/08/Maryam-Mirzakhani-doodle-aug-2014-03-e1408246269295.png https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2014/08/Maryam-Mirza...
- _delirium 9y agoInteresting, I don't think I've run into another mathematician who sketches on large sheets of paper like that (not that that means there aren't any). I do know some architects who like to work that way, and it used to be common in engineering (rarer in recent years), but mathematicians seem to always be depicted working either in notebooks, on the backs of napkins, or on whiteboards/blackboards.
- qq66 9y agoHm... I think a large sheet of paper on a drafting table, with a chair on a low-friction sliding rail, might be a really good way to organize large projects/concepts.
- eigenstuff 9y agoI'm an artist who makes math and physics visualization sculptures, I LOVE taking notes on 18"x24" drawing paper with a combination of colored pencil, fountain pen, and gel pen. For long derivations rather than notes/sketches, I prefer 11"x14" drawing paper in two columns because I think it's more comfortable to work with, but it still gives me that bird's-eye view of everything I want if I go back and color code stuff. A lot of my work is done in regular size sketchbooks, though.
- sriram_malhar 9y agoWow, sounds fascinating. Can you share some links to photographs of your work?
- tomrod 9y agoWhat a sad day. Too soon.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dbranes 9y agoIt's immensely disappointing that this comment section has has an abundance of comments on iranian socio-political issues, while completely devoid of any discussion on dynamics on moduli spaces.
- thebooktocome 9y agoAny typical human can form opinions on politics; it takes more work to say something meaningful about mathematics.
- dang 9y agoI agree with you but this tar is so sticky that any trace of it, even one brought up to negate it, will only attract more of the same and start the cycle all over again. Therefore I need to detach this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14776588 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14776588 and mark it off-topic (as of course I mark my own comments that go into this). You're welcome to post another comment upthread that's on topic and tar-free.
- ars 9y agoSuggestion: Have threads marked offtopic start "collapsed". People can open them if they wish (and the browser will remember it), but they start closed.
- dang 9y agoThis (edit: or something like it) is on the list.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dbranes 9y agoCan you remove my comment altogether? It's getting downvotes because in light of you cleaning up the rest of this thread my comment here is no longer relevant.
- thr31238893 9y agoThis is such sad news. RIP.
- bhnmmhmd 9y agoHow is it that brilliant, genius people who truly help our world become a better place die young, while people who bring nothing but destruction and war, live for decades?
- olavk 9y agoBecause cancer does not care.
- awalton 9y ago"Only the good die young" is a good sentiment to write a song around but reality and statistics don't back it up.
- dang 9y agoWe detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14776536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14776536 and marked it off-topic.
- kazinator 9y ago"Only the good die young" is the result of bias: the bias of people not giving a damn, not noticing or else soon forgetting, when the bad die young.
- bhnmmhmd 9y agoThis was terrible news today. It made me genuinely sad. I hope she rests in peace while all the humanity honors her.
- snake117 9y agoThis actually shook me awake when I read this. It was just a few months ago my aunts where sharing articles (through Telegram) with us, from Iran, about Maryam and her accomplishments. She was brilliant and really did serve as an inspiration to many Iranians all over. May she rest in peace.
- agumonkey 9y agoWhat saddens is that I thought (after talking to many cancer institutes) that breast cancer was one potentially favorable case. Alas cancer is random.
- afshinmeh 9y agoRIP, very sorry to hear this news.
- Jabanga 9y agoHow tragic.
- mncharity 9y agoThe 2014 article https://www.quantamagazine.org/maryam-mirzakhani-is-first-woman-fields-medalist-20140812 https://www.quantamagazine.org/maryam-mirzakhani-is-first-wo... , with the IMU video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuh4uta8oQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuh4uta8oQ . 2008 interview http://www.claymath.org/library/annual_report/ar2008/08Interview.pdf http://www.claymath.org/library/annual_report/ar2008/08Inter... . "I would like to thank all those who have sent me kind emails. I very much appreciate them and I am very sorry if I could not reply."
- Mz 9y agoIf anyone needs any background info on her work, there are a number of sources gathered here: http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/08/links-on-maryam-mirzakhani-first-fields.html http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/08/links-on-mar... It includes this, a quote that is the best laymen's explanation of her work that I could find: Mirzakhani became fascinated with hyperbolic surfaces — doughnut-shaped surfaces with two or more holes that have a non-standard geometry which, roughly speaking, gives each point on the surface a saddle shape. Hyperbolic doughnuts can’t be constructed in ordinary space; they exist in an abstract sense, in which distances and angles are measured according to a particular set of equations. An imaginary creature living on a surface governed by such equations would experience each point as a saddle point. It turns out that each many-holed doughnut can be given a hyperbolic structure in infinitely many ways — with fat doughnut rings, narrow ones, or any combination of the two. In the century and a half since such hyperbolic surfaces were discovered, they have become some of the central objects in geometry, with connections to many branches of mathematics and even physics.
- oefrha 9y agoI took her hyperbolic geometry class last year (my senior year at Stanford) and she looked perfectly healthy. She even gave me some advice on my grad school offers. What a shock...
- nthcolumn 9y agoI wrote many things just now. There is nothing to say. Life sucks. Deepest sympathy to all her knew or met or were inspired by her.
- akalin 9y agoI was auditing that same class. I remember a bunch of us coming to her office hours, and her telling us about her work, and life in Iran. Truly a sad day.
- oefrha 9y agoAnd I remember seeing her daughter once or twice there. A lovely little girl.
- rurban 9y agoI cried a bit. Life is unfair
- eternalban 9y agoI feel sadness for her family, specially her spouse and daughter - sucks losing your mom and wife. As for Maryam herself, nothing to cry about I would think. She shined brightly, lived a full life, and here we are all wishing her RIP. I think she did fine.
- Lotus123 9y agoSad news
- Lotus123 9y agoSad news
- throwaway5752 9y agoWhat a tragic loss for the mathematics community and her husband and young daughter. Deepest condolences to her family, friends, colleagues, and students.
- theCricketer 9y agoAn interview with Maryam from 2008 when she was a Research Fellow at the Clay Mathematical Institute -> this is inspiring: http://www.claymath.org/library/annual_report/ar2008/08Interview.pdf http://www.claymath.org/library/annual_report/ar2008/08Inter...
- akalin 9y agoTerry Tao wrote a eulogy for her on his blog: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/maryam-mirzakhani/ https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/maryam-mirzakhani/
- hi41 9y agoDeeply saddened to hear this news. I have immense respect for people like Maryam and Vera Rubin. They could have used their incredible genius to earn riches. Instead they devoted their lives to further math and science. When it was declared that Maryam won the Fields Medal I read the summary. I could barely understand even one word of the summary leave alone the actual work. People like Maryam amaze me. I am just a ordinary mortal working in a tech company. If God had asked me I would have told him to take my life and let Maryam live so we could have progress in math. Life is so unfair. I can't image how much math's progress has suffered with her passing. Deepest condolences to her family. RIP.