Maryam Mirzakhani Junior Prize

Maryam Mirzakhani Junior Prize: what is it?

Every year, this prize is awarded to three womens (in their final year of a bachelor's or master's degree) for their first research work or bibliographical study in mathematics. A €1,000 prize is awarded to a final-year undergraduate student. Two other prizes of €1,000 are also awarded to Master's students, one for a work in fundamental mathematics and the other for a work in applied mathematics carried out in the first year of the Master's program.

Why this prize?

The motivation for creating such a prize is easy enough to imagine. In France, more than anywhere else in the world, while many girls perform brilliantly in mathematics at high school, they abandon this discipline by the time they reach higher education, a trend that continues as the level of study increases.

With this initiative, the FMJH wants to create a symbol that helps young women to see a future in mathematical research as possible. And what better image could we project to inspire young minds than that of Maryam Mirzakhani, a shining star of mathematics?

Eligibility

All womens enrolled at the University of Paris-Saclay or the Institut Polytechnique de Paris in the third year of a Bachelor's or Master's degree (or equivalent), provided they can produce a written document in the form of a dissertation or study and research work carried out in the year of application or the previous year, in the field of mathematics (in the broadest sense, including interface work requiring the use of implementation, numerical simulation or data processing).

Application

The application includes a form to identify the candidate and check her eligibility (surname, first name, establishment of registration and course of study), a document in pdf format corresponding to a dissertation produced in the year of application or the previous year, and the name and contact details of the dissertation supervisor. If the work was carried out by more than one person, the complete dissertation must be provided, with the candidate's main contributions detailed in a short paragraph. The application can be submitted:

by the candidate herself via the online application form. An automatic e-mail will be sent to the supervisor to place a notice in the candidate's file (please allow sufficient time before the deadline for the supervisor to place his or her notice),
or by your thesis supervisor, by sending an e-mail to contact@fondation-hadamard.fr with name, surname, pdf file of the candidate's dissertation and her opinion.

Award

A jury appointed by the director of the FMJH, made up of senior mathematicians covering the whole spectrum of mathematics, decides on the list of prizewinners.

This list is made public at an awards ceremony held during the back-to-school days of the "Mathematics and Applications" master's degree co-accredited by the University of Paris-Saclay and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris. Each prizewinner is also offered the opportunity to be mentored by a mathematician during the course of their studies, as it is the case with the "à la carte" courses in the "Mathematics and Applications" master's program.