The world of Mathematics is a subtle one, the one where anyone who is not careful enough can get lost. But no matter how much subtle it may seem it has hidden the beauty in it that very few among us get to contemplate. I guess, most of us remember that feeling we experience when we solve a very difficult maths problem by our own effort. That feeling is beautiful, right?  Still, there is much more to maths than that beautiful feeling and grasping its beauty is as challenging as the subject itself. The beauty of Mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers and Maryam Mirzakhani is one of them.

So who actually is Maryam Mirzakhani. Most of us remember her as the first woman to win the Prestigious Fields Medal Prize. For those, who have not heard about Fields Medal, it's like the Nobel Prize for Maths, except it is given in every four years to between two or four mathematicians under 40. For any mathematician, Fields Medal and other accolades do hold a very important value but what really defines a mathematician is the journey they pave through the world of Mathematics and her journey has been one of the most beautiful and inspiring of all.

She was born in Iran when the nation was crippled by war. Luckily for her, the war ended when she finished her elementary school. She had a very humble background. She grew up in a family which was very supportive and encouraging and she recalls how that family environment played a major role in her success.

She acknowledges her older brother to be the one who got her interested in Science in general. He used to share what he had learned to her. Being curious, she always listened carefully to him and analyze what she had learned from him. Her first memory of Mathematics had a story of its own. Her brother told her a problem of adding numbers from 1 to 100. Adding manually was her first response but it required time to do so. Finally, they came across a popular science journal on how great mathematician Carls Friedrich Gauss solved that problem when he was young using a clever technique of Sequence and Series. She herself recalls," the solution was quite fascinating for me. That was the first time I enjoyed a beautiful solution, though I couldn't find it myself." That childhood experience made her realize that any problem is simple or complex, always has a beautiful solution. Later, in her teenage, she got involved in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and also won gold medals in it. She describes competing in IMO and winning a medal was an amazing feeling in itself, but meeting with many inspiring young mathematicians from around the world is what she considers,"the best part of IMO."

It is said that great knowledge often comes from humblest of origins and in her case, it did hold true. So a young girl with big dreams then entered Harvard to seek more knowledge. But things did not go as per expected for her, at least initially. She always enjoyed complex analysis but did not know much about it as her background was mostly combinatorics and algebra. In retrospect, she started to feel completely clueless. She had to learn many subjects including complex analysis, which most undergraduate students from good universities there already knew or knew better than her. Life does not work fair all the time. She had to study twice as much as other students in her class. But a good part of our life is that hard work never goes unnoticed. And in her case too, her hard work bore fruit, leading her to become the first women ever to win the Prestigious Fields Medal in 2014 on the topic she was initially struggling," Complex geometry and dynamical systems."

She herself describes the most beautiful feeling while doing maths is the moment one discovers something new, the excitement of discovery and enjoyment of understanding something new-the feeling of being on top of a hill and having a clear view.

So her journey is truly an inspiring one and the beauty of the trail she left behind in her journey will forever resonate till eternity. Her untimely death at the age of 40 due to breast cancer in July this year clearly left the Mathematics community in deep grief but one thing is for sure, her beautiful journey in the subtle world of Mathematics will continue to inspire many young boys and especially girls to pursue a career in maths and pave their own beautiful journeys through the world of Mathematics.

Prof Dame Francis Kirwan, a member of the medal selection committee from the University of Oxford, said at the time:" I hope this award will inspire lots more girls and young women in this country and around the world, to believe in their own abilities and aim to be the Field Medallists of the future."