Bold ambition, super smart: It All Adds Up
Each year as principal of a school I would speak at one of our opening community gatherings about something I had read over the summer that struck me as important and compelling in some way. The example of Mirakhani, her approach to her life and work, reminds me of the ways in which all of us, in whatever our roles, are well served when we are open to possibilities, all kinds of possibilities. If we believe we can learn and grow without limit, doesn’t it feel good—sort of relaxing and empowering all at once?
Maryam Mirzakhani was born in Iran in 1977. She won gold medals in 1994 and 1995 in the high school International Mathematical Olympiads, gaining a perfect score in 1995. She earned her B.Sc in Tehran and five years later a PhD from Harvard University for her dissertation Simple Geodesics on Hyperbolic Surfaces and Volume of the Moduli Space of Curves. After doing further research and teaching at Princeton University Mirzakhani became a professor of mathematics at Stanford University in 2008. Sadly, Mirzakhani died in the summer of 2017 of breast cancer at the age of 40.
During her short time on this earth, Mirzakhani’s undaunted desire to pursue the hardest endeavors; her adept synthesis of multiple approaches to mathematics; and her deep commitment to understanding something new led to work that will affect disciplines and worlds way beyond her field of theoretical math—including cosmology and cryptography. It is this combination of passion and genius that led Mirzakhani to win the Fields Medal, pretty much the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in math, in 2014. She was the first woman, and the first Iranian, to do so since its inception in 1936.
In a news release in 2014, the following was said of Maryam Mirzakhani:
“Fluent in a remarkably diverse range of mathematical techniques and disparate mathematical cultures, she embodies a rare combination of superb technical ability, bold ambition, far-reaching vision, and deep curiosity.”
Her life and work hold so many important lessons for all of us:
What do we learn from being first, from breaking the stereotype?
What level of respect can we give to someone with deep intellectual abilities?
Are we comfortable in environments that do not immediately appear to welcome us, and how do we establish ourselves in new territory?
As leaders, how do we curate experiences for our colleagues that allow them to take risks, experiment with ideas, even fail?
Do you have a bit of Maryam Mirzakhani in you? I, for one, firmly believe that we all have the potential to break down barriers and the confidence to be comfortable in new settings. And I know that when we free ourselves up to learning and growing without limit we set the stage for a year, and a life, of ground-breaking possibility. I am guessing that Mirzakhani was very, very smart and wise too; her short life should not be forgotten.
[Originally written as a CSW Pocket Change, 9/17/17]