Communiqué
The first woman and the first Iranian to receive the Fields Medal: “Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision Of Maryam Mirzakhani” – March 31 at 10 pm
< < Back to the-first-woman-and-the-first-iranian-to-receive-the-fields-medal-secrets-of-the-surface-the-mathematical-vision-of-maryam-mirzakhani-march-31-at-10-pmSecrets of the Surface:
The Mathematical Vision Of Maryam Mirzakhani
A documentary film by George Csicery
Secrets of the Surface introduces Maryam Mirzakhani to a wider public, telling the story of her life as recounted by friends and colleagues, looking at her mathematical work through the words of collaborators, and gauging her impact on future generations.
Maryam Mirzakhani’s mathematics is often described by her colleagues as being deeply beautiful. In the film we raise the possibility that her approach to shapes and surfaces is somehow linked to the spectacularly beautiful patterns and motifs in Iranian art. As we look at elaborate tiles and structures around the Jameh Mosque in Isfahan, mathematician Ali Rejali tells us there is a mathematical basis for the patterns created by craftsmen and architects a thousand years ago.
The stories of Maryam’s childhood in Iran are recounted by recordings of her own voice from a 2014 film produced by the Simons Foundation, and interviews with her husband Jan Vondrak and classmates. We learn about her generous, caring nature, and her initial aversion to math. She wanted to be a writer.
According to her lifelong friend, mathematician Roya Beheshti Zavareh, it was not until they were in seventh grade that Maryam’s interest in mathematics took off. Teachers and classmates were soon struck by her speed at solving problems, and a prodigious ability to concentrate. Yasaman Farzan, a physicist and researcher at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) in Iran, remembers that Maryam “made a point to solve any problem in hand several different ways. It was even a joke that Maryam has solved this problem four different ways.”