Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017)

 Mirzakhani was from Iran and did her graduate studies in the US. She was a full professor at Stanford University until her untimely death from breast cancer, having previously been at Princeton University. Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal (2014) for her work on hyperbolic and symplectic geometry. This made her both the first woman and the first Iranian to win this prestigious award. She was made a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2016), and that body now awards the Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics in her honor. Mirzakhani's birthday, May 12th, is Known as a day for celebrating women in mathematics