By Tatiana Sanchez
The Mercury News
(TNS)
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Maryam Mirzakhani was best known for breaking the mold – and for doing it the hard way. As a high school student in her native Iran, Mirzakhani competed for the International Mathematical Olympiad in the 1990s — a competition in which girls seldom participated.
Years later, she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Fields Medal for mathematics.