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Maryam Mirzakhani

299 points| mmoez | 6 years ago |en.wikipedia.org | reply

33 comments

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[+] fermenflo|6 years ago|reply
Mirzakhani will always have a special place in my heart.

I was an undergraduate mathematics student when I discovered her work. It was a paper on closed geodesics and there was something special about her writing. Her approaches were simple an elegant -the kind that made you, as a reader, feel accomplished for understanding such a complex subject. It wasn't long until she was placed among other grand mathematicians that I looked up to.

A year later she died. I wasn't even aware of her health. It sucked to see an idol go so young. But it's incredible what she accomplished within her lifetime. She'll always be one of the greatest.

[+] benrbray|6 years ago|reply
For the curious, do you have a link to the paper?
[+] EndXA|6 years ago|reply
> Mirzakhani 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. Her daughter described her mother's work as "painting".

> She declared: "I don't have any particular recipe [for developing new proofs] ... It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck, you might find a way out."

[+] a-saleh|6 years ago|reply
This reminded me of our Analysis prof. "I really hate Iternational Mathematical Olympiad. The problems there give you the false impression that math-theorems have elegant solutions. No. You are usually banging your head against the problem, and when nobody is looking you use dynamite!" - especially the "lost in a jungle" part of the quote :)
[+] hi41|6 years ago|reply
Deep respect for folks such as Maryam. I admit I don't know much of math or for that matter much of anything. After she won the award I remember visiting the Fields medal website and reading a short synopsis of her work. I couldn't understand even one sentence fully. These guys work is so amazing and so far from one's own field. Such brilliant people we have... I felt very sad and wept when she passed away. If the Lord showed more mercy, she could have continued to bring forth even more amazing work and humanity would have flourished because of it.
[+] omegaworks|6 years ago|reply
Imagine how many more people like Maryam are impacted by the merciless sanctions we've put upon Iran. Access to medicine, food and economic opportunity have precipitously declined as a direct result[1] of them.

Persian people brought algebraic concepts to Europe in the 9th century. We must not lose sight of what could be if the western world understood the value of that connection.

1. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/iran-sanctions-human...

[+] Myrmornis|6 years ago|reply
I was reading the rules for entry for a Kaggle competition the other day and I saw that Iranians are banned from entering. It’s pretty depressing/angering/pathetic. At some point a company just has to say fuck you to their government if their laws are inappropriate.
[+] zohvek|6 years ago|reply
Gone at only 40 years of age. What an incredible shame. How much more would she have been able to unravel had she lived longer. RIP.
[+] behnamoh|6 years ago|reply
This is exactly one of the sub-optimalities and inefficiencies of the world. The good go, the bad stay. It's so sad.
[+] CodeSheikh|6 years ago|reply
RIP(روحش شاد باشه) Maryam and thanks for your contributions.
[+] lunchables|6 years ago|reply
It's really annoying that there's nothing other than her name in the headline. There are a lot of articles on HN I don't click on because there's no information and I don't have time to open every article just to figure out if I want to read it. Is it too much to ask that the post include at least some relevant information?
[+] lincolnq|6 years ago|reply
Resist the urge to be annoyed by this, and use it as an opportunity to practice a useful skill: that of searching for value from something where the value isn’t highlighted upfront.

Most of today’s media tends to “tell you what to think” in advance of reading the story, and I would argue that is a big piece of the (poorly defined) problems with society today.

I’m glad you wrote your comment, because it helped me realize why it’s worthwhile to me to have this sort of article posted on HN — I think it’s a valuable skill, to figure out what to think (instead of being told it upfront).

[+] mmoez|6 years ago|reply
Link poster here.

I understand that the name only as a title offers no context to those who don't know Maryam Mirzakhani. But HN rules seem to favor not editing the original titles of articles and make them click-baity.

[+] theobeers|6 years ago|reply
When I see a post on HN that produces a substantial response despite a lack of detail in the title, I take it as a sign of something (or someone) I ought to read more about.
[+] xenocratus|6 years ago|reply
Sometimes you have to allow yourself to be surprised. :)

Plus, don't know how you would sum her up - "A mathematical genius"? A bit dry

[+] aws_ls|6 years ago|reply
Welcome to HN! I perhaps came to know of her via HN, when she won the Fields medal. Then about her tragic untimely death. Then couple of memory articles, at least once since 2017.