Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian- born mathematician who was the first woman to win the coveted Fields Medal, has died of cancer in a US hospital. She was 40. Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford University in California won the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Mathematics in 2014.<br/>'<br/>The award recognized her sophisticated and highly original contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, particularly in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces such as spheres.<br/>'<br/>According to Iranian state media, President Hassan Rouhani said that Mirzakhani's "doleful passing" has caused great sorrow to all Iranians.