Exhibition on the career of Maryam Mirzakhani arrives at IMPA Tech

5/2/2025

To inspire undergraduate students and pay tribute to Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), IMPA brought the “Remember Maryam Mirzakhani” exhibition to IMPA Tech. The researcher was the first woman to receive the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics, in 2014.

Inaugurated on Tuesday (4), the exhibition brings together 18 panels with photographs, statements and other images from the mathematician’s private and professional life. The pieces are on display in the left-hand corridor of the second floor.

This is the fourth time the exhibition has toured Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, the exhibition was open to the public at the World Meeting for Women in Mathematics (WM)² and the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM). Between 2023 and 2024, the collection could be visited at IMPA’s headquarters in the Botanical Garden.

For student Taina Queiroz, the initiative to bring the exhibition to the corridors of Porto Maravalley is inspiring. “Sometimes it’s a bit of a dull space and these installations bring it to life. Maryam’s story is very inspiring and motivates us to keep going. It’s interesting not only for us students, but also for the staff who pass through. A woman who reached the pinnacle of mathematics, but also showed her motherly side,” she said.

Kátia Coutinho, coordinator of academic activities, didn’t know about Maryam’s career and enjoyed finding out more. “I thought it was a great idea. It’s an interesting story that encourages students to work harder. The location of the exhibition was also well chosen because it’s a place where the students hang out and it brings the walls of IMPA Tech to life.”

The exhibition was produced by the Committee for Women Mathematicians of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). It was curated by Thais Jordão and designed by Rafael Meireles Barroso.

Meet Maryam Mirzakhani

Born in Tehran, the capital of Iran, in 1977, Maryam became interested in mathematics while still at school. At the age of 17, she was the first Iranian to win a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Maryam went on to become a professor at Stanford University in the United States.

In 2014, Maryam won the Fields Medal for outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli. The honor is awarded every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 with outstanding achievements in the field. Maryam received the award in the same year that Brazilian Artur Avila, an extraordinary researcher at IMPA, was also honored.

Until 2022, she was the only woman to be awarded the Fields Prize since its creation in 1936. Ukrainian Maryna Viazovska was the second to receive the honor, considered the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics”.

The mathematician died young, at the age of 40, of breast cancer. She fought the disease for four years. Maryam left behind a daughter, Anahita, born in 2011.

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