Iranian is first woman to win ‘Nobel Prize of maths’

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, sixth from left, poses with award winners during the opening ceremony of the 2014 International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul on Tuesday. Iranian mathematics professor Maryam Mirzakhani, sixth from right, is the first female winner of the Fields Medal.





An Iranian-born mathematician has become the first woman to win a prestigious Fields Medal, widely viewed as the Nobel Prize of mathematics.Maryam Mirzakhani, a Harvard-educated mathematician and professor at Stanford University in California, was one of four winners announced by the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) at its conference in Seoul on Wednesday.
“This is a great honour. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians,” Mirzakhani said in a press release from Stanford University where she is a professor.“I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years,” she added.

“On behalf of the entire Stanford community, I congratulate Maryam on this incredible recognition, the highest honour in her discipline, the first ever granted to a woman.