Stanford University professor Maryam Mirzakhani has become the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal, considered the "Nobel Prize" of the field of mathematics.
Awarded since 1936, Fields Medals are presented to mathematicians aged 40 or younger in recognition of notable achievement early in a career.
Iranian native Mirzakhani, 37, received the award for her work in the fields of geometry and in dynamical systems.
Although her investigations into the symmetry of curved surfaces found in spheres, doughnuts and hyperbolic objects is considered theoretical "pure mathematics," it suggests possible applications in physics and quantum field theory.
Four Fields Medals, officially known as the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, were awarded Wednesday at the International Mathematical Union's conference, held this year in Seoul, South Korea.
In addition to Mirzakhani, other winners included Artur Avila at the Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu in Paris, Princeton University's Manjul Bhargava and Martin Hairer from the University of Warwick in Britain.
Mirzakhani grew up in Iran thinking she would become a writer until her older brother got her interested in general science subjects, which then led her to mathematics in high school.
Solving math problems and taking them through to a proof attracted her, she says.
"It is fun -- it's like solving a puzzle or connecting the dots in a detective case," she says. "I felt that this was something I could do, and I wanted to pursue this path."
As a teenager she was already coming to the notice of the international mathematics community, taking gold medals in the International Math Olympiads in 1994 and 1995.
Mirzakhani earned her bachelor's degree at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology in 1999, then went to Harvard University for her doctorate.
After four years as a research fellow and assistant professor at Princeton, she came to Stanford in 2008 as a full mathematics professor.
Her winning of the Fields Medal is seen as important in a field where women are still underrepresented; women hold less than 10 percent of tenure-track positions in mathematics, a 2010 study found.
"This is a great honor," she says. "I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians."
Ingrid Daubechies, president of the International Mathematical Union, echoed Mirzakhani's sentiments and called her achievement "hugely symbolic."
"I hope it will encourage more women to get into mathematics because we need more women," Daubechies said. "I am very happy that now we can put to rest that particular 'it has never happened before.'"
