We are thrilled that brilliant mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani has been awarded a Fields medal – the first woman to be recognised.

A talent search has just begun to find competitors to represent the UK in the first ever European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO). But why should a girls-only competition be held and what do we hope to achieve?

To coincide with the 100th International Women's Day two new competitions to find the best young female mathematical minds in the UK and Europe have been launched.

Plus 1000 — Mathematical lives

Mathematics is not only for men, says the author of the new booklet "Women in the History of Mathematics from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century".