Since the Nobel Prize is not awarded to mathematicians, the Fields Prize is often called the "Nobel Prize for Mathematicians," notes the Air Force.

Miriam Mirzahani was 40 years old. In 2013, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It is reported that a few weeks ago she had metastases in the bone marrow.

Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Prize in 2014 for "outstanding contribution to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and the theory of the spaces of their modules". Thus, she became the first female laureate and the first winner from Iran.

"I hope that this award will inspire many girls and young women - in this country and around the world - and will help them to believe in their strength and the opportunity to become a winner of the Fields Prize," said jury member Frances Kirouon.

The Fields Prize has been awarded since 1936 once every four years at every international mathematical congress. Laureates are two, three or four young mathematicians no older than 40 years old.

Mirzahani was born on May 3, 1977. As a teenager, she twice - in 1994 and 1995 - became the winner of the International Mathematics Olympiad. In 1999, she moved to the US. In 2004, Mirzahani received her doctorate in mathematics from Harvard University. She specialized in Lobachevsky geometry, Teichmiiller theory, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry.

Since 2008, she taught at Stanford University.

"Today the light went out. My heart is broken. She left so early, "wrote her friend and colleague Firuz Naderi in Instagram..