BBC 15.7.2017: Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman to win maths’ Fields Medal, dies

Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to receive the prestigious Fields Medal for mathematics, has died in the US.

The 40-year-old had breast cancer, which had spread to her bones.

Nicknamed the ”Nobel Prize for Mathematics”, the Fields Medal is only awarded every four years to between two and four mathematicians under 40.

It was given to Prof Mirzakhani, an Iranian, in 2014, for her work on complex geometry and dynamical systems.

”A light was turned off today. It breaks my heart… gone far too soon,” her friend, Nasa scientist Firouz Naderi, posted on Instagram.

Passssssska tauti iski taas. Ensimmäinen nainen joka on saavuttanut kansainvälistä tunnustusta matematiikassa tällä tasolla, ja sitten iskee rintasyöpä.

Ja samasta aiheesta uutisoi myös IFP News. Maryam Mirzakhani oli ilmeisesti saanut alkuperäisen/ensimmäisen diagnoosin noin vuosi ennen palkintoa, jonka jälkeen syöpä oli uusiutunut.

IFP News uutisoi Maryamin syöpätaistelusta jo muutamia päiviä ennen kuolinuutista.

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Vielä lisäyksenä se, että Maryam Mirzakhanin kuolema oli niin merkittävä tapaus Iranissa, että poikkeuksellisesti Maryamin kuvat on näytetty Iranin pääuutislähteissä ilman hijabia, pään peittävää huivia, eikä sellaista ole jälkikäteen retusoitu hänen kuviinsa, kuten monissa muissa tapauksissa on tehty:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/16/maryam-mirzakhani-iranian-newspapers-break-hijab-taboo-in-tributes

Iran’s state-run newspapers on Sunday broke with the country’s strict rules on female dress to show the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani with her head uncovered, as the country mourned the death at the age of 40 of the woman known as the queen of mathematics.

Tributes were led by the president, Hassan Rouhani, who posted a recent picture of Mirzakhani on Instagram without a hijab. “The grievous passing of Maryam Mirzakhani, the eminent Iranian and world-renowned mathematician, is very much heartrending,” he wrote.

Mirzakhani, a Stanford University professor, died in hospital in California on Saturday after cancer in her breast spread to her bone marrow. The university president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, said Mirzakhani’s influence would live on in the “thousands of women she inspired” to pursue maths and science. […]