The first woman to receive the prestigious Fields Medal for mathematics, Maryam Mirzakhani, has died in the US, aged 40.
The Iranian professor at Stanford University, had breast cancer which had spread to her bones.
Nicknamed the “Nobel Prize for Mathematics”, the Fields Medal is only awarded every four years to between two and four mathematicians under 40.
It was given to Prof Mirzakhani in 2014 for her work on complex geometry and dynamical systems.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said her death was a cause for grief for all Iranians.
Mirzakhani and her husband, Czech scientist Jan Vondrak, had one daughter.
