At the 2018 World Meeting for Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the Iranian Mathematical Society suggested to celebrate and honor women in mathematics on Maryam Mirzakhani’s birthday. M. Mirzakhani was born on May 12 in 1977 in Theran, earned a PhD from Harvard University in 2004 and later became a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. In 2014, Mirzakhani was the first women and first Iranian to receive the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics,
To celebrate the Day in 2020, online events including workshops, movie projections and conferences are organized around the world. An overview of events is provided by May12 – Celebrating Women in Mathematics.