UKRAINIAN BECOMES THE SECOND FEMALE FIELDS MEDAL RECIPIENT

Maryna Viazovska is one of four to win the prestigious award.

Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska has become the second woman ever to win the Fields Medal, often referred to as the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Viazovska is one of four recipients of the medal, along with Hugo Duminil-copin (from France), June Huh (US), and James Maynard (UK).

Viazovska, who currently works at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, was awarded the medal for, among other things, solving the sphere packing problem in eight dimensions.

“It was summer, it was rather stuffy on the train.

On the train, I thought, since nothing seems to work, let me write the problem out one more time,” said Viazovska.

“In school, they taught us that your head is full of rubbish until you write things down to put them in order. So, I am writing it out, and I get this functional equation. I look at it and I think: ‘I should be able to solve it.’ And, indeed, I solved it – it only took a couple of months.”