Maryam Mirzakhani anecdote

After completing an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Sharif University in Tehran in 1999, Mirzakhani went to graduate school at Harvard University, where she started attending McMullen’s seminar. At first, she didn’t understand much of what he was talking about but was captivated by the beauty of the subject, hyperbolic geometry. She started going to McMullen’s office and peppering him with questions, scribbling down notes in Farsi.

“She had a sort of daring imagination,” recalled McMullen, a 1998 Fields medalist. “She would formulate in her mind an imaginary picture of what must be going on, then come to my office and describe it. At the end, she would turn to me and say, ‘Is it right?’’ I was always very flattered that she thought I would know.”