The 37-year-old mathematician has found the most efficient way to fit as many spheres as possible in eight-dimensional spaces, a problem that took her 13 years to solve!
37-year-old Ukrainian mathematician Marina Vyazovska of the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) is one of four mathematicians announced by the International Mathematical Union to be awarded the Fields Medal for 2022. This is one of the most important international honors in the field of mathematics , which some consider the equivalent of the Nobel for scientists under 40 (the other major math prize is the Abel).
She is the second woman out of 64 to date to receive the prize, which was awarded every four years since 1936 and is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields. The only female mathematician to have won the Fields was in 2014 the Iranian-born Stanford University professor Mariam Mirzakhani.
This year’s three other winners are 35-year-old James Maynard of the University of Oxford, 36-year-old Hugo Duminil-Copen of the University of Geneva and 39-year-old Jun Hu of Princeton University.
Kyiv-born Vyazovska, who works on the geometry of spheres, has found the most efficient way to fit as many spheres as possible into eight-dimensional spaces, a problem that took her 13 years to solve. Maynard advanced the understanding of gaps between prime numbers, Köppen the theory of phase transitions (e.g., the transformation of water into ice) into the field of statistical physics, while Hu was honored, among others, for his innovative use of geometry in the field of combinatorics.
The award was originally scheduled to take place at the International Mathematical Congress in St. Petersburg, Russia, but due to the invasion of Russia the ceremony and presentation of the 14-karat gold medals was moved to Helsinki, Finland. It was clarified, however, that the selection of the four awardees had been made before the war began, but was announced now.
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