Maryna Viazovska facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maryna Viazovska
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| Марина Сергіївна Вязовська | |
Viazovska in 2013 at Oberwolfach
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| Born | 2 December 1984 |
| Citizenship | Ukrainian |
| Alma mater |
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| Known for | Sphere-packing problem |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Salem Prize (2016) Clay Research Award (2017) SASTRA Ramanujan Prize (2017) European Prize in Combinatorics (2017) New Horizons in Mathematics Prize (2018) Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (2019) Fermat Prize (2019) EMS Prize (2020) Fields Medal (2022) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | Modular Functions and Special Cycles (2013) |
| Doctoral advisors | Don Zagier Werner Müller |
Maryna Sergiivna Viazovska is a famous mathematician from Ukraine. She was born on December 2, 1984. She is well-known for solving a very tricky math problem. This problem is about how to pack spheres (like balls) in the most efficient way.
Maryna Viazovska is a professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. In 2022, she received the Fields Medal. This is one of the highest awards a mathematician can get.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Maryna Viazovska grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is the oldest of three sisters. Her father was a chemist, and her mother was an engineer.
She went to a special high school for students who were very good at science and math. One of her teachers, Andrii Knyazyuk, was a big influence on her. He used to be a research mathematician.
While in high school, Maryna took part in many math competitions. She also competed in the International Mathematics Competition for University Students. She won first place in 2002 and 2005.
She earned her master's degree in 2007. Later, she received her doctorate from the University of Bonn in 2013. Her main focus was on a part of math called analytic number theory.
Her Amazing Work in Math
Maryna Viazovska is most famous for solving the sphere-packing problem. Imagine you have a bunch of oranges. How would you stack them to fit the most oranges into a box? That's the idea behind sphere packing.
Mathematicians had only solved this problem for small numbers of dimensions. For example, they knew how to pack circles in 2D or spheres in 3D. But higher dimensions are much harder.
In 2016, Maryna solved the sphere-packing problem for 8 dimensions. This was a huge breakthrough! Her solution was surprisingly simple and elegant. Soon after, she worked with other mathematicians to solve it for 24 dimensions too.
Her work showed a new way to think about these problems. Before her, solving such problems often needed long computer calculations. But Maryna's proof was much more direct.
She also did important research on spherical designs. This work helps mathematicians understand how to arrange points on a sphere in a balanced way.
Awards and Recognition
Maryna Viazovska has received many important awards for her work.
- In 2016, she won the Salem Prize.
- In 2017, she received the Clay Research Award and the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize.
- She was given the New Horizons Prize in Mathematics in 2018.
- In 2019, she won the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics and the Fermat Prize.
- She also received the EMS Prize in 2020.
The biggest award came in July 2022. Maryna Viazovska was given the Fields Medal. This is like the Nobel Prize for mathematics. She is only the second woman ever to receive this honor. The first was Maryam Mirzakhani.
In December 2022, the BBC named her one of their 100 inspiring and influential women.
Family Life
Maryna Viazovska is married to Daniil Evtushinsky. He is also a researcher, working in physics at the same university. They met when they were in a physics group for students after school. Maryna and Daniil have two children, a son and a daughter.
See also
In Spanish: Maryna Viazovska para niños
