Charting her own way
Maryam Mirzakhani, grew up dreaming of becoming a novelist, instead she went on renowned Mathematician and first Iranian to win Field’s Medal (equivalent to Nobel prize in Mathematics) in 2014. Her destiny, however, was not a chance rather was charted by herself.
Maryam completed her elementary studies just as Iran-Iraq war ended. She secured a spot through placement test to Farzanegan Middle School for girls, the school was administered by Iranian government for Exceptional Talents.
However, during her first year in middle school Maryam did poorly on mathematics, her math teacher didn’t see her as talented which undermined further undermined her confidence. During this time Maryam herself believed that she had no talent in maths.
In her second year she had a more supportive mathematics teacher. At school she also befriends Beheshti who later became a mathematician professor at Washington University, St. Louise. One day Maryam and Beheshti found that year’s national question paper to shortlist students to represent International Olympiad in informatics. They took several days to solve three out of six questions, even though exam was timed for 3 hours.
Eagar to discover what they could do in similar competitions, Mirzakhani and Beheshti went to school principal and demanded to arrange for math-solving classes similar to ones being taught at boy’s school. Their upbeat principal arranged for the classes. Consequently, in 1994, Mirzakhani became the first Iranian woman to win a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong, scoring 41 out of 42 points. Next year, in Toronto, she became the first Iranian to achieve a perfect score and to win two gold medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Maryam went on to complete her undergraduate from Sharif University of Technology, and graduate and PHD from Harvard University. Maryam initially struggled at Harvard with pace, but later became fascinated with hyperbolic surfaces.
Maryam described herself as a “slow” mathematician, saying that “you have to spend some energy and effort to see the beauty of math.” To solve problems, Mirzakhani would draw doodles on sheets of paper and write mathematical formulas around the drawings.
Maryam continued her career as Professor at Princeton University and later at Stanford University. Her work won her many awards including Field’s Medal, for her work in “the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces”, she solved a problem that was unsolved for 20–30 years. Her life was cut short by Cancer at age of 40, but she and her legacy continue to inspire generations.
Personally, I find Maryam Mirzakhani’s life inspiring for 2 reasons:
1. Undermining beliefs of teachers and other regarding what you can do or cannot do doesn’t always define you.
2. Even if your learning methods are different or ‘slow’ from your peers as long as you’re devoted and love your subject you can contribute no less.
Reference:
https://www.wired.com/2014/08/maryam-mirzakhani-fields-medal/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/416896/Sculpture-of-Maryam-Mirzakhani-to-be-unveiled
