Ukrainian mathematician becomes second woman to win Fields Medal
The Hindu
The Fields Medal, often described as the Nobel Prize in mathematics, is awarded every four years to mathematicians under age of 40
Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska was named on Tuesday as one of four recipients of the prestigious Fields Medal, which is often described as the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
The International Mathematical Union said Ms. Viazovska, who holds the chair in number theory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, was being honored for her work on the densest packing of identical spheres in eight dimensions.
Ms. Viazovska said Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February had profoundly changed her life and those of all Ukrainians.
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“When the war started I could not think about anything else, including mathematics,” she said, adding that teaching has offered some respite, however.
“When I’m in front of class, I have to forget about everything else because I have to be very focused,” said Ms. Viazovska. “This made me forget about the fear and pain inside myself.”
The other winners were French mathematician Hugo Duminil-Copin of the University of Geneva; Korean-American mathematician June Huh of Princeton; and British mathematician James Maynard of the University of Oxford.