Maryam Mirzakhani has won the Fields award for Maths and she is the first woman to win so.
Frankly, I had no idea about Fields medal, or Maryam Mirzakhani, but today this news caught my eye on Twitter and I read more about her on the Newsweek and on other websites. Maryam Mirzakhani
Maryam is an Iranian born mathematician who was told by one of her Maths teachers in her middle school that she wasn't particularly talented in Maths. Yet, many years later she wins the first Fields medal restricted to mathematicians below 40 years old and is involved in the most complex sounding mathematical investigations (symmetry of curved surfaces such as surfaces of doughnut... how many doughnuts did she research on??!!!)
My interest was not as much in her Maths... but the fact that she was able to sustain her interest in the subject in spite of having been told that she didn't have the talent. One of the write-ups about Maryam talks about her being optimistic and a pleasure to work with. Maryam is into doodling and jogging. She is humble, persistent, optimistic, hard-working and doesn't mind jumping straight into big, abstract problems that make her curious. She makes Maths seem rather artistic and poetic - something that needs imagination in order to "cross boundaries people set up between different fields". Her work goes into abstract areas and her husband feels that she needs sometimes to take bigger jumps rather than smaller logical steps.
Fantastic lessons for the day for me...
1. Your attitude has the ability to push the boundaries of your aptitude.
2. Every problem cannot be solved in simple logical sequential steps. Sometimes it is fine to jump straight on to the big picture to find the pixels!
3. Imagination and logic can breathe the same air!
Thank you Maryam. May you continue to explore vistas and cross all boundaries.
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