
First female winner for Fields maths medal - Bzomak
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28739373
======
Mz
There is actually a lot more discussion here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8169367](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8169367)

And it includes links to additional info about her and the other winners, like
this link to a profile of her:
[http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140812-a-tenacious-...](http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140812-a-tenacious-
explorer-of-abstract-surfaces/)

------
qq66
So, is there any way for someone with no theoretical math background to even
grasp a poor analogy of what her work is? With prizes like chemistry and
biology, I can usually sit down with Google and slowly figure out what exactly
the person did. With theoretical math and physics, I can't even decipher what
I'm reading.

Wikipedia: "... this led her to obtain a new proof for the celebrated
conjecture of Edward Witten on the intersection numbers of tautology classes
on moduli space as well as an asymptotic formula for the length of simple
closed geodesics on a compact hyperbolic surface."

~~~
Mz
I did some digging yesterday and this seems to be the best explanation in
layman's terms I could find:

[http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140812-a-tenacious-...](http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140812-a-tenacious-
explorer-of-abstract-surfaces/)

 _Mirzakhani became fascinated with hyperbolic surfaces — doughnut-shaped
surfaces with two or more holes that have a non-standard geometry which,
roughly speaking, gives each point on the surface a saddle shape. Hyperbolic
doughnuts can’t be constructed in ordinary space; they exist in an abstract
sense, in which distances and angles are measured according to a particular
set of equations. An imaginary creature living on a surface governed by such
equations would experience each point as a saddle point.

It turns out that each many-holed doughnut can be given a hyperbolic structure
in infinitely many ways — with fat doughnut rings, narrow ones, or any
combination of the two. In the century and a half since such hyperbolic
surfaces were discovered, they have become some of the central objects in
geometry, with connections to many branches of mathematics and even physics._

~~~
qq66
Well, this is probably as good as it get for someone of my mathematical
maturity. Thanks.

------
sq1020
Great to see that someone who grew up in a country which many in the west
believe is backward and opposed to women's education and scientific progress
in general win such an award.

~~~
msoad
Despite popular beliefs women outnumber men in Iran universities. Sadly
government is trying to "fix" this but academic community always resisted.

------
cratermoon
Statement from IMU (PDF)
[http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Prizes/2014/news_rele...](http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Prizes/2014/news_release_mirzakhani.pdf)

------
Mz
Her Wikipedia page:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani)

~~~
Pxtl
I like to think I'm fairly learned in math and science, and i don't know what
any of those words mean.

~~~
throwaway283719
Hyperbolic geometry is the geometry of surfaces and spaces that aren't flat.
Think of a 2D surface which is curved like a saddle. A triangle drawn on this
surface will have angles that add up to less than 180 degrees.

Ergodic theory is the study of dynamical systems (things that change over
time) that are allowed to run for a long time. They are "ergodic" if the state
after the system has run for a long time is like picking a state randomly from
the set of all possible states. Pouring cream into coffee and then mixing it
is ergodic - after a sufficiently long time, you might as well have just
arranged all the molecules at random.

Symplectic geometry is a bit more abstract. It's the study of dynamical
systems that look similar to Newtonian mechanics, i.e. there are analogues of
position and momentum. It encompasses all of Newtonian mechanics (i.e.
mechanics without friction) but also a large set of other possible dynamics,
like electrodynamics.

Riemann surfaces are surfaces that look like the complex plane "up close" but
might look more complicated "from a distance". For example, an infinitely tall
spiral staircases (which extends to infinity in the x and y directions) is a
Riemann surface. It's interesting to study functions on Riemann surfaces,
because the limitation of behaving like the complex plane at small distances
is quite restrictive.

------
alayne
Someone posted a video of part of a Mirzakhani lecture a few hours ago
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMWJW-
AVVCI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMWJW-AVVCI)

------
alexanderss
First of many.

------
jessaustin
[Larry Summers' head explodes.]

~~~
huryp
A female present at the top level of math achievement is not inconsistent with
the 3 reasons Summers gave for the (average) lack of females there. It will
still be overwhelmingly male at the top and the higher male variance in math
ability is not going to magically go away.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
Might not "magically" go away but if you actually look at the data it
vanishes.

~~~
toehead2000
Im really, honestly, interested in what data you're talking about. Please
paste a link.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
The AMS commissioned a study a few years ago, and it was in the Notices in
early 2011 or 2012.

~~~
jessaustin
It's funny though, that some political blowhard can pull a self-contradictory
self-serving hypothesis halfway out of an orifice, and everyone bends over
backwards to imagine a circumstance in which it possibly could be partially
true. Anyone who disagrees with the blowhard had better bring some actual
research.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
Welcome to the Patriarchy.

~~~
jessaustin
It's pretty sad that my most salient recent exposure to that (as a white dude
myself) takes the form of apologists for a particular stupid old white man who
has personally annoyed me for years. Sorry!

