Maryam Mirzakhani

May 12 is Women in Mathematics Day! The date was chosen because it is the birthday of Maryam Mirzakhani. She was a world-leading mathematician and the first woman to win a prestigious Fields Medal, one of the highest honours in maths. Mirzakhani died from cancer in 2017 when she was only 40 years old. You can read our article about some Mirzakhani's work here.

We are lucky enough to work with lots of women mathematicians all the time, working on areas from pure mathematics, like Mirzakhani, to applied mathematics, theoretical physics, and artificial intelligence. To see some favourite content produced in collaboration with these women, see our collection published for International Women's Day this year.

For today we thought we'd celebrate three pioneering women from the history of mathematics. Working against the odds they produced fundamental contributions to mathematics. By looking at these three we hope to celebrate all the women who have worked in mathematics over the millennia, whether or not their names are still remembered today.

Ada Lovelace: Visions of today — Ada Lovelace anticipated modern computers long before they were built, creating one of the first computer programs nearly 200 years ago. This article takes a brief look at her life and work. For a more detailed article see here.

Introducing Florence Nightingale — Florence Nightingale is most famous for her work as a nurse, but in an effort to keep patients safe she also made fundamental contributions to statistics. This article gives a brief introduction. For a more detailed article see here.

Emmy Noether and the power of symmetry — Albert Einstein described Noether as a "creative mathematical genius". This article explores how her work on the mathematics of symmetry helped cutting edge physics of the day.