女性首次获得数学界最高荣誉菲尔茨奖

An Iranian mathematician is the first woman ever to receive a Fields Medal, often considered to be mathematics' equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

一名伊朗数学家成了首位荣获菲尔茨奖(Fields Medal)的女性；该奖项被认为是数学界的诺贝尔奖(Nobel Prize)。

The recipient, Maryam Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford, was one of four scheduled to be honored on Wednesday at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea.

这位获奖者是斯坦福大学(Stanford)教授玛丽亚姆·米尔札哈尼(Maryam Mirzakhani)，本周三在韩国首尔举行的国际数学家大会(International Congress of Mathematicians)会为她和另外三位数学家颁奖。

The Fields Medal is given every four years, and several can be awarded at once. The other recipients this year are Artur Avila of the National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics in Brazil and the National Center for Scientific Research in France; Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University; and Martin Hairer of the University of Warwick in England.

菲尔兹奖每四年颁发一次，每次可以同时授予数人。今年的另外三位获奖者是巴西国立纯数学和应用数学研究所(National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics)和法国国家科学院(National Center for Scientific Research)的阿图尔·阿维拉(Artur Avila)、普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)的曼朱·巴尔加瓦(Manjul Bhargava)，以及英国华威大学(University of Warwick)的马丁·海瑞尔(Martin Hairer)。

The 52 medalists from previous years were all men.

以前的52名菲尔兹奖得主都是男性。

"This is a great honor. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians," Dr. Mirzakhani was quoted as saying in a Stanford news release on Tuesday. "I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years."

“这是极大的殊荣。如果这对年轻的女性科学家和数学家有所鼓励，我会感到荣幸，”米尔札哈尼博士在本周二斯坦福大学的一份资讯稿里说。“我相信未来会有更多女性获得这类奖项。”

Ingrid Daubechies, a professor of mathematics at Duke and president of the International Mathematical Union, called the news "a great joy" in an email.

杜克大学(Duke)数学教授英格丽·多贝西(Ingrid Daubechies)是国际数学联盟(International Mathematical Union)主席，她在电子邮件中称这个消息是“一大喜讯”。

"All researchers in mathematics will tell you that there is no difference between the math done by a woman or a man, and of course the decision of the Fields Medal committee is based only on the results of each candidate," she wrote. "That said, I bet the vast majority of the mathematicians in the world will be happy that it will no longer be possible to say that ‘the Fields Medal has always been awarded only to men.' "

“数学界的所有研究人员都会告诉你，女性和男性所做的数学研究没有差别，而且菲尔兹奖委员会当然只会根据每个候选人的成就来甄选获奖者，”她写道。“话虽如此，我敢打赌，世界上的绝大多数数学家都会感到高兴，因为以后不可能再有人说‘菲尔兹奖一向只授予男性'了。”

Much of the research by Dr. Mirzakhani, who was born in Tehran in 1977, has involved the behavior of dynamical systems. There are no exact mathematical solutions for many dynamical systems, even simple ones.

米尔札哈尼博士1977年出生于德黑兰，她的许多研究都涉及到动力系统的行为。很多动力系统都没有精确的数学解决方案，就连一些很简单的系统也是如此。

"What Maryam discovered is that in another regime, the dynamical orbits are tightly constrained to follow algebraic laws," said Curtis T. McMullen, a professor at Harvard who was Dr. Mirzakhani's doctoral adviser. "These dynamical systems describe surfaces with many handles, like pretzels, whose shape is evolving over time by twisting and stretching in a precise way. They are related to billiards on tables that are not rectangular but still polygonal, like the regular octagon."

“玛丽亚姆的发现是：在另一个层面，动力学轨道严格遵循代数法则，”哈佛大学(Harvard)教授柯蒂斯·T·麦克马伦(Curtis T. McMullen)，他是米尔札哈尼读博时的导师。“这些动力系统通过很多元素来描述表面，就像麻花一样，其形状通过扭曲和拉伸，以一种精确的方式随着时间推移而不断变化。它们有些像桌子上的撞球，桌子不是长方形的，但仍然是多边形，比如说正八边形。“

Dr. Avila, 35, investigated a different area of dynamical systems, including an understanding of fractals. Dr. Bhargava, 40, was recognized for new methods in the geometry of numbers, especially prime numbers, and Dr. Hairer, 38, made advances in the study of the effect of random noise on partial differential equations, capturing the effect of turbulence on ocean currents or the flow of air around airplane wings.

35岁的阿维拉博士研究的是动力系统的另一个领域，包括对分形的一种理解。40岁的巴尔加瓦博士在几何数论、尤其是质数上找到了一些新方法，而38岁的海瑞尔博士在研究随机噪声对偏微分方程的影响时取得了进展，捕捉到了湍流对洋流或飞机机翼周围空气流动的影响。

While women have reached parity in many academic fields, mathematics is still dominated by men, who earn about 70 percent of the doctoral degrees. The disparity is even more striking at the highest echelons. Since 2003, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel Prize, recognizing outstanding mathematicians with a monetary award of about $1 million; all 14 recipients so far are men. No woman has won the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, another prestigious award.

虽然女性已经在很多学科领域赶上了男性，但数学界仍然以男性为主，70%的数学博士都是男性。在最顶尖的层次，这种差距更是惊人。挪威科学与文学院自2003年开始颁发阿贝尔奖(Abel Prize)，用100万美元（约合人民币600万元）表彰优秀的数学家，到目前为止，该奖项的14个得主全都是男性。另一个著名的奖项沃尔夫数学奖(Wolf Prize in Mathematics)，至今也没有女性得主。

The Fields Medal was conceived by John Charles Fields, a Canadian mathematician, "in recognition of work already done" and as "an encouragement for further achievement." Judges have interpreted the terms of the Fields trust to mean that the award should usually be limited to mathematicians age 40 or younger.

菲尔兹奖是由加拿大数学家约翰·查尔斯·菲尔兹(John Charles Fields)设立的，“用以表彰已经完成的工作”，并“鼓励得主获取进一步的成就”。根据评委对菲尔兹信托条款的解释，该奖项通常只应该颁发给年龄在40岁或以下的数学家。

Dr. McMullen, himself a Fields medalist, did not speculate on why it had taken so long for a woman to be recognized. "I would prefer to look forward and celebrate this occasion," he said, "and see it as a sign of positive trends in society and in science."

麦克马伦博士自己也是菲尔兹奖得主，对于为什么迟至今日才有女性获奖这个问题，他没有加以揣测，而是说：“我更愿意向前看，更愿意庆贺这件事，把它看成是社会以及科学界中的一个积极趋势。”