YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian genius mathematician and the first-ever female winner of the prestigious Fields Medal prize, died at the age of 40 of breast cancer at a hospital in U.S. on July 14, Tehran Times reports.

Mirzakhani fought with cancer for four years and was hospitalized recently as the cancer has spread to her bone marrow. 

Mirzakhani was born on May 3, 1997. She received her bachelor’s degree from Iran’s Sharif University of Technology in 1999 and earned a PhD degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 2004.

In 2014 she was the first woman and the first Iranian to be awarded with Fields Medal prize.