Which mathematician became the first woman to win the Fields Medal in 2014?

Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to win the Fields Medal in 2014.

The Fields Medal is one of mathematics’ highest honors. Mirzakhani received it for outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces. Her research connected areas including hyperbolic geometry, topology, and dynamical systems.

She received the medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul. Mirzakhani was also the first Iranian to receive the award. The medal is generally presented to mathematicians aged under 40, making it both a major lifetime distinction and recognition of early-career work.

Mirzakhani died of breast cancer in 2017 at age 40. In 2019, Karen Uhlenbeck became the second woman to win the Fields Medal, so references to the “first woman” specifically identify Mirzakhani.