史丹福大学的数学教授Maryam Mirzakhani七月十五日因癌症不治逝世，年方四十岁。她是四年一度的Field数学奖得主，该奖被视为数学中的最高奖。

她对作为数学家，科学家是这样想的：

试图解决以前还没有解决的问题，或者是为了理解以前还没有被理解的东西。这是由于深刻的智力好奇心，而且每一个成功都有很大的喜悦和满足感。

她没有把当上教授，拿高薪，获得Field奖作为人生目标。

Stanford mathematics Professor Maryam Mirzakhani, the first and to-date only female winner of the Fields Medal since its inception in 1936,died July 15 after a long battle with cancer. Mirzakhani was 40 years old. The quadrennial Fields Medal, which Mirzakhani won in 2014, is the most prestigious award in mathematics,often equated in stature with the Nobel Prize.

Maryam embodied what being a mathematician or scientist isall about:  the attempt to solve a problem that hadn’t been solved before, or to understand something that hadn’t been understood before.  Thisis driven by a deep intellectual curiosity, and there is great joy and satisfaction with every bit of success.

“I don’t have any particular recipe [for developing new proofs]. … It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out.”

McMullen described Mirzakhani as filled with “fearless ambition.”

“You’re torturing yourself along the way,” she would offer,“but life isn’t supposed to be easy.”

原文见史丹福大学网站：

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/15/maryam-mirzakhani-stanford-mathematician-and-fields-medal-winner-dies/