女性首次獲得數學界最高榮譽菲爾茨獎
An Iranian mathematician is the first woman ever to receive a Fields Medal, often considered to be mathematics' equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
一名伊朗數學家成了首位榮獲菲爾茨獎(Fields Medal)的女性；該獎項被認爲是數學界的諾貝爾獎(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.
這位獲獎者是斯坦福大學(Stanford)教授瑪麗亞姆·米爾札哈尼(Maryam Mirzakhani)，本週三在韓國首爾舉行的國際數學家大會(International Congress of Mathematicians)會爲她和另外三位數學家頒獎。
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.
菲爾茲獎每四年頒發一次，每次可以同時授予數人。今年的另外三位獲獎者是巴西國立純數學和應用數學研究所(National Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics)和法國國家科學院(National Center for Scientific Research)的阿圖爾·阿維拉(Artur Avila)、普林斯頓大學(Princeton University)的曼朱·巴爾加瓦(Manjul Bhargava)，以及英國華威大學(University of Warwick)的馬丁·海瑞爾(Martin Hairer)。
The 52 medalists from previous years were all men.
以前的52名菲爾茲獎得主都是男性。
"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."
“這是極大的殊榮。如果這對年輕的女性科學家和數學家有所鼓勵，我會感到榮幸，”米爾札哈尼博士在本週二斯坦福大學的一份新聞稿裏說。“我相信未來會有更多女性獲得這類獎項。”
Ingrid Daubechies, a professor of mathematics at Duke and president of the International Mathematical Union, called the news "a great joy" in an email.
杜克大學(Duke)數學教授英格麗·多貝西(Ingrid Daubechies)是國際數學聯盟(International Mathematical Union)主席，她在電子郵件中稱這個消息是“一大喜訊”。
"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.' "
“數學界的所有研究人員都會告訴你，女性和男性所做的數學研究沒有差別，而且菲爾茲獎委員會當然只會根據每個候選人的成就來甄選獲獎者，”她寫道。“話雖如此，我敢打賭，世界上的絕大多數數學家都會感到高興，因爲以後不可能再有人說‘菲爾茲獎一向只授予男性'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.
米爾札哈尼博士1977年出生於德黑蘭，她的許多研究都涉及到動力系統的行爲。很多動力系統都沒有精確的數學解決方案，就連一些很簡單的系統也是如此。
"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."
“瑪麗亞姆的發現是：在另一個層面，動力學軌道嚴格遵循代數法則，”哈佛大學(Harvard)教授柯蒂斯·T·麥克馬倫(Curtis T. McMullen)，他是米爾札哈尼讀博時的導師。“這些動力系統通過很多元素來描述表面，就像麻花一樣，其形狀通過扭曲和拉伸，以一種精確的方式隨着時間推移而不斷變化。它們有些像桌子上的撞球，桌子不是長方形的，但仍然是多邊形，比如說正八邊形。“
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歲的阿維拉博士研究的是動力系統的另一個領域，包括對分形的一種理解。40歲的巴爾加瓦博士在幾何數論、尤其是質數上找到了一些新方法，而38歲的海瑞爾博士在研究隨機噪聲對偏微分方程的影響時取得了進展，捕捉到了湍流對洋流或飛機機翼周圍空氣流動的影響。
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.
雖然女性已經在很多學科領域趕上了男性，但數學界仍然以男性爲主，70%的數學博士都是男性。在最頂尖的層次，這種差距更是驚人。挪威科學與文學院自2003年開始頒發阿貝爾獎(Abel Prize)，用100萬美元（約合人民幣600萬元）表彰優秀的數學家，到目前爲止，該獎項的14個得主全都是男性。另一個著名的獎項沃爾夫數學獎(Wolf Prize in Mathematics)，至今也沒有女性得主。
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.
菲爾茲獎是由加拿大數學家約翰·查爾斯·菲爾茲(John Charles Fields)設立的，“用以表彰已經完成的工作”，並“鼓勵得主獲取進一步的成就”。根據評委對菲爾茲信託條款的解釋，該獎項通常只應該頒發給年齡在40歲或以下的數學家。
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."
麥克馬倫博士自己也是菲爾茲獎得主，對於爲什麼遲至今日纔有女性獲獎這個問題，他沒有加以揣測，而是說：“我更願意向前看，更願意慶賀這件事，把它看成是社會以及科學界中的一個積極趨勢。”
