About the Award
The Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics (formerly the NAS Award in Mathematics) was established in 1988 by the American Mathematical Society in honor of its centennial. The prize was renamed to honor the late Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), a highly accomplished and talented mathematician, professor at Stanford University, and member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. She was the first woman to win the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics, often equated in stature with the Nobel Prize. Made possible through generous gifts from the Simons Foundation and other benefactors, this $20,000 prize will be awarded biennially for exceptional contributions to the mathematical sciences by a mid-career mathematician.
Roman Bezrukavnikov, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will receive the 2026 Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics.
Bezrukavnikov has made varied and profound contributions to geometric representation theory.
Bezrukavnikov concentrates on problems in geometric representation theory and in algebraic geometry. His extensive work has established the importance of categories of coherent sheaves in the field, introduced fundamental new tools arising from positive characteristic, and resolved central questions about modular representations of semi-simple Lie algebras.
Not only solving many longstanding problems in representation theory, Bezrukavnikov’s work has also opened a spectrum of new opportunities and open questions for the field.
Watch him receive the award online during the 163rd NAS Annual Meeting on April 26th.
Award History
The first prize was awarded to Robert Langlands for his extraordinary vision, which has brought the theory of group representations into a revolutionary new relationship with the theory of automorphic forms and number theory. Previous recipients have gone on to win other major awards in mathematics, such as the Abel Prize.
Most Recent Recipient
