Mathematicians are fascinated by the elegance and beauty of the ideas behind mathematical theories. Their personal stories are equally important and interesting as their discoveries.
It was August 2014 when Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to win the Fields Medal. I was in a cafe in Rome and I remember when the Italian radio announced it in the news. I was a maths PhD student in a male-dominated research area and I got very excited.
EWM-NL has prepared a poster about women in mathematics, inspired by a poster on Notable Women in Computing. In this article you can find the beautiful poster, prepared by a joint Dutch and UK team comprising Maria Vlasiou and Silvy Hendriks (NL), and Houry Melkonian.
This year the work of the Israeli computer scientist Avi Wigderson and the Hungarian mathematician László Lovász was in the spotlight. On the website of the Academy we read: "They received the prize in 2021 for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics."
László Lovász and Avi Wigderson received the prize for their pioneering contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics. One of these contributions was the incorporation of theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics as central parts of modern mathematics.
Last Tuesday, the 8th of March, was the International Women's Day. On this occassion we would like to share some stories of women in science. We start with this video made bij IFL Science, which was published five years ago, but is still relevant. It shows some great women who changed the world.