STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Maryam Mirzakhani, a Stanford University professor who was the first and only woman to win the Fields Medal in mathematics, has died. She was 40.
Stanford University says Mirzakhani died Saturday. She had breast cancer. The school didn't indicate where she died.
Mirzakhani was born in Iran and joined Stanford as a mathematics professor in 2008.
She received the Fields Medal in 2014. The award is considered the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Stanford says her work involved the geometric and dynamic complexities of curved surfaces such as spheres and doughnut shapes.
Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne calls Mirzakhani a brilliant theorist who made enduring contributions and inspired thousands of women to pursue math and science.
Mirzakhani is survived by her husband and a daughter.