Valuable Math Awards Given to Only 5 Women in the Past Ninety Years; Maryam Mirzakhani Among Two Who Received Two Awards

The prestigious scientific journal "Nature" reported, alongside a photo of the moment Maryam Mirzakhani, the prominent Iranian mathematician who passed away in July 2017, received the "Fields Medal," that in the past 90 years, only 5 women have won top mathematics awards, one of whom is Maryam Mirzakhani. Ms. Mirzakhani won the "Fields Medal" in 2014, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics, and after her death in 2020, she was awarded the "Breakthrough Prize" for her achievements in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces. According to "Nature," out of 217 instances when six prestigious mathematics awards have been given to mathematicians, only seven times have women mathematicians been recognized, with Maryam Mirzakhani and Claire Voisin, a French mathematician, being the only two who have received two of these awards. In the first month of 2024, Claire Voisin became the first woman to receive the prestigious "Crawford Prize" in mathematics, drawing attention once again to the lack of gender diversity among the winners of the most prestigious awards in this field. The 61-year-old Voisin also won the "Shaw Prize" in 2017. The chair of the "Women in Mathematics" committee of the International Mathematical Union told "Nature" that helping female researchers gain more visibility and increasing diversity in the awarding committees could bridge the gender gap. She suggested that for those who take breaks in their careers as mathematicians to care for children, 18 months should be added to the age limit for awards for each child. Maryam Mirzakhani, one of the two individuals to receive two of the world's top mathematics awards, was born on May 11, 1977. The International Mathematical Union has named this day "International Day of Women in Mathematics" in her memory and honor. Ms. Mirzakhani obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and her PhD in the same field under the supervision of Curtis McMullen, an American mathematician, from Harvard University, later teaching at Princeton and Stanford universities in the United States. Maryam Mirzakhani was the first Iranian woman to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. She was also a survivor of the bus accident involving Sharif University students on March 17, 1998, which resulted in the deaths of two students from Tehran University and five from Sharif University while returning from the 22nd Mathematics Competition. This Iranian mathematician and former Stanford University professor was 40 years old when she passed away in the USA due to breast cancer that had spread to her bone marrow. Ms. Mirzakhani and her husband, John Van Dardak, a computer science researcher, have a daughter named Anahita, who, due to the laws of the Islamic Republic during her mother's lifetime, was unable to obtain an Iranian passport and enter Iran without a visa. Other women who have received prestigious mathematics awards include Ingrid Daubechies, a 69-year-old Belgian mathematician who received the "Wolf Prize" in 2023; Marina Vitzevskaya, a 39-year-old Ukrainian mathematician who won the "Fields Medal" in 2022; and Karen Uhlenbeck, an 81-year-old American mathematician who received the "Abel Prize" in 2019. The gender gap across Iran is evident; the unemployment rate for women is over 20 percent. The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Claudia Goldin, an American economist. Biden's statement on "Women's Equality Day" emphasized maintaining economic security and safety in the workplace. Iran ranks at the bottom of the gender gap table; Azadeh Davachi stated that the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement was an outpouring of anger from Iranian women. A university professor noted that 50 faculty members have migrated from Tehran University alone. Rasoul Khadem reacted to the holding of a congress on influential women, calling it "a source of shame." Details of a bill granting citizenship to the children of Iranian women were approved in parliament; the Ministry of Intelligence was added to the bill for granting citizenship. Two years after the death of "Maryam Mirzakhani," the general principles of granting citizenship to the children of Iranian women were approved.