When you purchase through links on our site , we may pull in an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .

A unexampled prize was just founded to honor the late Maryam Mirzakhani , a superb Persian mathematician who break down ofbreast cancerin 2017 . The $ 50,000 prize will go to salient young distaff mathematicians who are no more than two years out from pull in their doctorial degrees .

" We hope that the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize will help inspire young women to pursue their calling formathematics , " said Richard Taylor , the hot seat of the selection committee for the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics , which is awarding the money . " Recognizing some of the many aspiring womanhood in mathematics is a fitting tribute to the beautiful intellect of Dr. Mirzakhani . "

In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford University, became the first woman to receive the prestigious Fields Medal for mathematics.

In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford University, became the first woman to receive the prestigious Fields Medal for mathematics.

Mirzakhani was just 40 when she died , only three years after gain ground one of math ’s most esteemed plunder , the Fields Medal . Mirzakhani was the only fair sex to have ever won the loot , which is pass on out to mathematicians under age 40 . Mirzakhani ’s closemouthed collaborator , mathematician Alex Eskin of the University of Chicago , won a $ 3 million Breakthrough Prizethis year for work he did in coincidence with Mirzakhani . The brace had function out a theorem to explicate some of the features of a geometrical conception address modulus outer space . Mirzakhani was also well known for her work in understanding the geometry of spheres , doughnuts and other curved , three - dimensional shapes , according to Stanford University , where she was a professor .

Mirzakhani was born in Tehran and in high-pitched schooltime became the first female person ever to vie on Iran ’s International Mathematical Olympiad team , accord to her Stanford University necrology . She won atomic number 79 medals in that contention in 1994 and 1995 . She attended Harvard University for graduate schooltime and solved two long - standing mathematical problems in her doctorial thesis .

The $ 50,000 prize money may be burst between two or more individual mathematicians . item on eligibility for the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize will be available on theBreakthrough Prize website .

an illustration of fluid blue lines floating over rocks

to begin with published onLive skill .

headshots of Dr. Alberto Ascherio and Dr. Stephen Hauser

Numbers and mathematical symbols in the shape of a human head.

A series of math equations on a screen

A headshot of Jens Holst in the centre against an enlarged, blurred version of the same photo.

An elderly woman blows out candles shaped like the number 117 on her birthday cake

a black and white photo of a bone with parallel marks on it

A photo of the corroded Antikythera mechanism in a museum

a bird�s eye view of a crowd of people on a multicolored floor

A calculator shows the start of the seemingly endless number that constitutes Pi, the mathematical concept and symbol.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

two ants on a branch lift part of a plant