Maryam Mirzakhani: First woman to win Fields Medal

Maryam Mirzakhani, a professor of mathematics at Standford University, has been awarded the 2014 Fields Medal for her work in the fields of geometry and dynamical systems. Mirzakhani is the first women to ever win the Fields Medal (1), which is often regarded as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics."

Let me repeat that: She is the first woman EVER to win the Fields Medal. 

In a statement from Mirzakhani, she says, "This is a great honor. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians. I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years."

Congratulations Maryam Mirzakhani! Can't wait to see your future work! 

1) The Fields Medal, officially known as the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded every 4 years to 2-4 outstanding mathematicians under the age of 40. It is widely regarded as the highest honor a mathematician can receive and is often described as the "Nobel Prize for mathematics." The other winners for 2014 are Artur Avila, Manjul Bhargava, and Martin Hairer. 

LIVE from the ACS Meeting

The 248th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting began this past Saturday and will run through tomorrow. With the theme of "Chemistry and Global Stewardship" I could not think of a better host city than San Francisco. And because the meeting was in San Francisco, it was especially convenient for many people at my university to attend the talks. We could literally walk to the convention center from campus. 

Although environmental chemistry took center stage at this meeting, there were many other excellent sessions throughout the week. With over 14,000 chemists in attendance, and many simultaneous sessions, it was frequently challenging to decide which talks to attend! 

I presented a poster of some of my work in the Biological Chemistry poster session. This was my second time presenting at ACS--but my first time as a graduate student. It was exciting to talk about my work with others in the field and see where things are moving. I already have a bunch of new ideas for my project!

One of the other great things about ACS is meeting and connecting with people. It was exciting to run into (literally!) several people I knew from Macalester and be introduced to their friends and colleagues. Even introducing myself to complete strangers, we usually only needed to talk for a little bit before finding a common friend. 

Old and new friends at the POLY poster session

I'm really glad I was able to attend and hear about all of the cutting-edge ways that chemistry is impacting medicine, energy and the environment. I can't wait to see what new innovations are developed from this research in the next few years. It was great #ACSsanfran and hopefully I will be there in Denver for 2015!