Science Minister voices condolence over Iranian elite demise

In his message, released on Saturday, Farhadi sympathized with professors, colleagues and the bereaved family of Mirzakhani.

He prayed for Iranian scientist's soul to rest in peace and he wished patience for her colleagues and family as well.

The Iranian winner of Fields Medal, also known as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, and Stanford University professor, Maryam Mirzakhani, passed away at 40 in a hospital in the US on Saturday.

In 1994, Mirzakhani won a gold medal in the Hong Kong International Mathematical Olympiad, to be the first female Iranian student to have received a gold medal. In the 1995 Toronto International Mathematical Olympiad, she became the first Iranian student to receive a perfect score and to win two gold medals.

She obtained her BSc in mathematics (1999) from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. She went to the US and got a PhD from Harvard University in 2004.

Mirzakhani (b. May 3, 1977) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, a year before she set the record of the first ever woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics.

9376**1420