The character arc of Maryam Mirzakhani

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born 12 May 1977 in Tehran and educated at the Farzanegan school there. Between then and now sit a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1994 and a second with a perfect score in 1995, a degree at Sharif University, a Harvard doctorate in 2004, a full professorship at Stanford at thirty two, a cancer diagnosis in 2013, and the first Fields Medal ever awarded to a woman. The line below draws the whole story.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who was Maryam Mirzakhani?

The highest prize in mathematics, and four years to hold it.

She was born in Tehran in 1977 and went to the Farzanegan school for exceptional students. At seventeen she took a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong with 41 points out of 42, the first Iranian woman to do it. The following year, in Toronto, she took a second gold with a perfect score, which no Iranian had managed, and became the first Iranian to win two.

She took her degree at Sharif University of Technology in 1999 and went to Harvard for a doctorate, finishing in 2004 under Curtis McMullen. Her subject was the geometry of surfaces: how you count the closed loops you can draw on a curved surface, and how those surfaces behave when you deform them. It is very abstract and very hard, and she was unusual even among mathematicians for working slowly, on enormous sheets of paper on the floor, on problems other people had stopped attempting.

She went to Princeton, then to Stanford as a full professor in 2009, at thirty two. In 2013 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2014, in Seoul, she was awarded the Fields Medal, which is given only to mathematicians under forty and only once every four years, and which no woman had received in the seventy eight years of its existence. In 2016 the cancer spread to her bones and liver, and she died on 14 July 2017, aged forty. Her line is worth reading because it is short and complete, and because the thing it is famous for happened after the diagnosis rather than before it.

The moments

Maryam Mirzakhani's timeline.

The 1990s

Jul 1994

Gold at the Olympiad

Milestone, and it changed everything. Seventeen years old, and the first Iranian woman ever to take a gold at it.

Jul 1995

A perfect score, and gold

Milestone, and it changed everything. Full marks. Nobody from her country had done that, and nobody from her country had won twice.

Jun 1999

A degree at Sharif

Milestone. The best mathematics department in Iran, finished at twenty two.

The 2000s

Jun 2004

A doctorate at Harvard

Milestone, and it changed everything. A thesis on counting the closed loops you can draw on a curved surface, which is harder than it sounds.

Sep 2004

To Princeton

Milestone. Straight from the doctorate into one of the strongest mathematics departments there is.

~2009

A full professor at Stanford

Milestone, and it changed her direction. A full chair at thirty two, which is early even for people who are going to win everything.

The 2010s

~2013

A cancer diagnosis

Setback, and it changed everything. At thirty six, with the work that would define her still unfinished.

1 Jun 2013

Stop the work, or carry on

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: keep working through treatment, taken, or step back from the mathematics. She was awarded the Fields Medal in 2014, the first woman ever to receive it, in the year after the diagnosis.

Aug 2014

The Fields Medal

Milestone, and it changed everything. Given only to mathematicians under forty, only once every four years, and never before to a woman in its whole history.

~2016

It spread

Setback, and it changed everything. Two years after the medal, and the prognosis changed entirely.

The line ends on 14 July 2017, in California, at forty. What it set moving outlived her by a long way: her birthday is now International Women in Mathematics Day, a prize carries her name, and there is an asteroid, a satellite and, since 2024, a crater on the moon called Mirzakhani.

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Maryam Mirzakhani: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What is Maryam Mirzakhani's character arc?

A schoolgirl in Tehran with two Olympiad golds who became the first woman to win the Fields Medal, and died in 2017. Born in 1977, she took gold in 1994 and 1995, a Harvard doctorate in 2004, a Stanford chair in 2009, and the medal in 2014.

What were the turning points in Maryam Mirzakhani's life?

The Olympiad golds of 1994 and 1995 marked her out. The Harvard doctorate in 2004 set the subject she worked on for the rest of her life. The cancer diagnosis in 2013 changed everything, and the Fields Medal came the year after it.

Why was Maryam Mirzakhani winning the Fields Medal significant?

Because no woman had received it in the seventy eight years it had existed, and no Iranian either. It is awarded only to mathematicians under forty and only once every four years. She was given it in Seoul in 2014, for work on the geometry of Riemann surfaces.

What was Maryam Mirzakhani's biggest setback?

Her health. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, at thirty six, with the work that would define her still unfinished. It spread to her bones and liver in 2016, and she died on 14 July 2017 at Stanford Hospital, aged forty.

What did Maryam Mirzakhani work on?

The dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces, which in plainer terms is about counting the closed loops you can draw on a curved surface, and about how such surfaces behave when you deform them. She was known for working slowly on very hard problems.

What did Maryam Mirzakhani achieve at the Mathematical Olympiad?

Two gold medals. In Hong Kong in 1994 she scored 41 out of 42, the first Iranian woman to take a gold. In Toronto in 1995 she scored full marks, which no Iranian had done, and became the first Iranian to win the competition twice.

How is Maryam Mirzakhani remembered?

Her birthday, 12 May, is now International Women in Mathematics Day. A prize carries her name, and a satellite, an asteroid and, since 2024, a crater on the moon have all been named after her. She died in 2017 at the age of forty.

Where does this timeline of Maryam Mirzakhani's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Maryam Mirzakhani isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Maryam Mirzakhani, English Wikipedia biography.
International Mathematical Union, Fields Medal 2014 citation.
International Mathematical Olympiad official results, 1994 and 1995.
Posthumous honours: International Women in Mathematics Day, the Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize (2019), and the lunar crater Mirzakhani named in 2024.