As part of efforts to foster an appreciation of mathematics as a creative discipline and as a powerful tool for understanding and exploring the world, the instructors of the Mathematical Reasoning course are organising a series of activities this term, particularly for our first-year SIAS students. These activities are intended to engage students with mathematics in ways that are fun, accessible, and thought-provoking.
We are pleased to announce the second event in this series: an evening screening of two documentary films featuring two remarkable mathematicians and Fields Medalists:
- The film explores the life and mathematical work of Maryam Mirzakhani, who in 2014 became the first woman and the first Iranian to receive the Fields Medal. She was a professor of mathematics at Stanford University from 2008 until her death in 2017. Her groundbreaking work in the geometry and dynamics of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces has had a profound influence on modern mathematics. Mirzakhani also had a remarkable early career in mathematics. She represented Iran at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 1994 and 1995, winning gold medals in both years, including a perfect score in 1995.
- A documentary on Hong WangHong Wang, a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University (NYU) and a permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES), was awarded the 2026 Fields Medal for her work in harmonic analysis and geometric measure theory, including applications of multiscale and decoupling techniques to the local smoothing conjecture for the planar wave equation, and major advances in Fourier restriction, Falconer distance sets, Furstenberg sets in the plane, and the Kakeya problem in three dimensions.
The two films offer an opportunity to learn not only about the mathematics these remarkable women have contributed to, but also about their lives, journeys, and experiences as mathematicians.
The screening is being convened by Dr. Soumya Dey (Coordinator, Mathematical Reasoning Course).
All first-year SIAS students are strongly encouraged to attend this screening.
We hope the evening will offer a glimpse of mathematics beyond the classroom and an opportunity to encounter the lives, ideas, and journeys of two extraordinary mathematicians. Everyone is welcome!
